Hey Food Tube, I'm Nick, founder and director of Hunter Gather Cook
today we're down at the tree house HQ and we're going to show you an Argentinian approach to grilling lamb
Lamb Asador is a traditional Argentinian method of grilling, so we just put the lamb on a big spit
slow cooked, really smokey gorgeous piece of lamb
We got whole lamb straight from the abattoir, about 22 kilos and it's going to feed a lot of people
so first off cut down our wood for our frame. Piece of wood we've selected for this is a nice long
piece of hazel, nice and straight this is going to be the main part of our frame and then the 'y' splits at the top
we're going to take those off and they're going to be our cross beams to mount the lamb up on this
timber!
the reason we cut down our wood for our frame last minute is because we want it to have nice
green wood that's got lots of moisture in it, because if we're going to be cooking over a fire for around about
5 / 6 hours we want to make sure that moisture content's going to keep it nice and wet
and not burn. Also we strip off all the bark for two reasons, 1 it's a bit more hygienic, the other is because
we can then see if any burn marks form on it so we can then adjust it and put some foil around it
So I've cut the frame and that's ready to go, I've stripped those down and made a nice big point in the end
to dig it into the ground, so first off we need to do a little bit of nip and tuck. So we're going to come down the
middle here just to open that up a bit
A little silky saw goes straight down through the spine
and this effectively gradually allows us to butterfly open the carcass
that way we've just got one cooking surface that's kind of level, rather than it being folded up like that
it should cook nice and evenly on each side
I think we're almost there
Now it's time to measure up this beast, just so I know roughly where I'm going to have to put the cross bars on
because they need to be sort of notched in and then wired up, whilst I'm doing that why don't you go see
Dougy and Dave in the kitchen and they'll talk you through how to make a salmuera or the brine
for the whole beast.
So this is the ground ivy it's also called alehoof or glechoma hederacea if you want to be fancy
about these things. Here is a whole piece of it, it's part of the mint family. It's got hints of sage
the main predominant flavour is going to be the rosemary, it's going to add some really nice flavour to the lamb
Cool, so I'm just going to chop some of this up and get it into the pan and get this on the go
and then we'll chuck everything together, garlic, oregano, chilli flakes to give that zing and cut through the fat
salt to season the lamb, wine vinegar, that acid is going to help cut through fat as well
tenderize the meat.
Oil for fat and then a bit of water
and then we've got a beautiful salmuera brine
for this recipe it's a lot more than you'd normally use so we've got cups of everything but you can go for a much smaller recipe
for a normal sized piece of meat. I'm just going to put this on the heat and then Dave's going to make
a rosemary wand for us
So I picked some rosemary earlier and we're just going to pick some nice similar length pieces off
and tie it to the stick
using the rosemary as a wand it's going to add a little bit more flavour, it's going to compliment
the ground ivy and it's kind of fun as well
So I've just finished wiring this up, we've wired it at a few different points which is quite important
to know, so obviously around the two front legs here, we've also done it around the neck here
but most importantly to give it a good bit of support right around mid-drift if you like
and then down here we've obviously wired it around the back legs too
so it's all mounted up and we're ready to take it over to the fire and get it cooking
Look B, meats, meats!
Dougy and Dave have got some support sticks because it's quite heavy lamb
so we're going to bring it down and that's going to sit there just at about 45 degrees over it
it's good
and the nose is just going to sit there and give it the support it needs
basically if you can hold your hand there
for 15 seconds then it's good slow temperature we're going to go a little bit quicker to begin with
and i think i can do it for about...
ten
So to begin with what we're doing is we're just putting on the salmuera or the brine
and that's going to sort of start off the whole seasoning process
and then we can spin it around and start the cooking process
now it's just about giving it a bit of love and looking after it, tending the fire for about 5 hours and manage it
that's the fun bit
the kind of wood we're using here, we've got a mixture of oak and hornbeam
it's going to burn really hot, burn long, burn slow, kick out of lots of heat
perfect for slow cooking this lamb
around the back we've got this big sand stone alcove and that basically reflects all the heat back towards
the lamb
here we got our mix of hornbeam and oak, so that as we go we just sweep this to the back
and keep everything burning here
so it's very much kind of indirect way of cooking
and it means you can cook something like this, an animal that's got lots of fat on it, you can cook it long
and you can cook it slow and the results are incredible
so guys now we're ready to carve up some of our lamb asador
look at that, oh yeah
so lads great work, I don't think this is premature by any standards so Dave if you would care to do that
and I'll just
straight for the skin
it's clearly the best bit
that's incredible
it's got a nice bit of spice towards the end, that's amazing
so guys thanks for watching, please subscribe to the Hunter Gather Cook channel
or Foodtube
or Drinks Tube
and we'll see you next time
Cheers! Cheers
let's eat this