Hoisin Shredded Lamb Pancakes

My Dad is my hero. I think I may have mentioned that before (a few million times) but, just in case you missed it, I'll say it again.

My Dad is my hero.

I am so grateful that God blessed me with an earthly father who illustrates so much of what it means to be an awesome Daddy- it makes me wonder at just how awesome our heavenly Daddy is! Some of my fondest memories of growing up are of my Daddy Dates- even if, more often than not, we would go to the exact same Chinese restaurant and order the exact same meal. Every time.

It was our thing.

I once dared to go there with a friend, and the owner lady looked at my with horror and asked where my Father was. I think she presumed he'd died, as that could be the only reason for his not being there. I never went without him again.

So what does this have to do with Hoisin Shredded Lamb Pancakes?

Well I've told you before that my Dad is a Lamb man. So there's the first very clear connection. But the real reason for my telling you the story above is that whenever we went to that restaurant, we always had Hoisin Crispy Duck Pancakes. Oh man they were good. Crispy skin, juicy meat, fresh cucumber and spring onion strips and the deep, punchy Hoisin sauce. Yum scrum. The balance of it all was just perfect.

Now, if I'm honest, duck would still be my preference for this dish, but I just can't quite justify buying it for an average weeknight meal. Actually, I normally couldn't justfiy lamb either, but there was a great big chunk of lamb half price at the supermarket and I just couldn't resist snapping it up and bringing it on home to be slow cooked. It's such a cheap way of cooking, using less energy and turning even the cheapest cut of meat into tender yumminess, and the perfect shredded lamb it produces is an awesome start to a million different meals. Like Shredded Lamb Wraps with Pomegranate Salsa for one, and this for another.

Dad doesn't need to know all that though- for his benefit, I'll say that I just decided to combine his favourite meat with our favourite dish. What a winning combination!

I almost forgot- since the slow cooker does all the hard work for you, all this dish takes is a bit of slicing of vegetables and warming the pancakes through. I'm not even going to list shredding the lamb as effort, cause you pretty much only have to look at it and it falls apart.

Yay!

Hoisin Shredded Lamb Pancakes

Ingredients

800g Lamb Shoulder (this served two of us for two meals)

1 pint of lamb stock

Half a cucumber

6 spring onions

Hoisin Sauce (shop bought would do, just buy your personal favourite)

12 Chinese rice pancakes (you could make these, but they are sooo cheap and so perfect from Chinese supermarkets I have yet to see the point! If you don't have a Chinese supermarket near you, most takeaways will let you buy some if you ask nicely!)

Directions

1) To cook the lamb, rub it with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper. Sear it in a hot pan until browned on all sides. Place in the slow cooker along with the lamb stock, set it on its low setting and leave it alone for 8 hours. Go about your day and look forward to the awesome smell when you get home.

2) When the lamb is done, remove it to a separate bowl and use two forks to shred it. This will take about 30 seconds as it will be so tender it will literally fall apart. Cover the bowl and leave it to rest as you prep the rest.

3) Cut the end off the cucumber and then cut it in half lengthways. Use a teaspoon to scoop/scrape the seeds out- this stops it from being too watery when in the pancakes. Cut each half in half again, this time horizontally. Cut each piece into batons, about 3" long.

4) Chop the tails off the spring onions and cut into 3" sections. Split each section in half and repeat until it's as fine as you can (you don't need to go crazy with this, you just don't want massive chunks of spring onion!).

5) To heat the pancakes, either put them in the microwave or steam for 30 seconds.

Serve everything, along with the Hoisin Sauce, in the middle of the table for everyone to build their own pancakes.

How easy was that?!

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