131/18 – Butterflied Leg of Hogget:
I have been cooking quite a few dishes from the Berber & Q book recently and really enjoyed them all. With a freezer full of hogget I was looking for a dish to use a leg with. I spotted a recipe for Butterflied leg of lamb in the book so decided to make Butterflied leg of hogget with green charmoula dressing & charred aubergine.
This recipe is from Beber and Q by Josh Katz – You can buy the book by clicking the link below:
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Other dishes I have cooked from this book were:
THE MEAT:
The best quality and best tasting lamb I have eaten is from Briggs Shetland Lamb. The lambs spend their days on a rough pasture croft on the island of Shetland. The breed is naturally smaller with a finished lamb weighing 8kg to 14kg compared to other breeds at 17kg to 22kg. Richard compares his lambs to Oranges and Tangerines, the smaller ones are juicier!
The hogget was 18 months old and cost me £100 fully butchered and delivered. If you live in Scotland Richard might be able to deliver it in person on his way to the restaurants in Glasgow and Edinburgh. If you live further away you can order through Fresh Food Express who will courier the meat to you.
In the box:
- 2 leg joints which include the chump
- 2 racks of rib chops (Not French trimmed)
- 2 racks of loin chops
- 2 shoulder joints
- Neck
- and pieces of flank
The cut selected for this cook was a leg.
The bone was in so I needed to butterfly it. Every time I have to do this I watch this video by Scott Rea:
Following Scott’s video I removed the shank.
Followed by the rest of the leg bone. The bone on the left is the aitch bone, they are quite tricky to remove as they are a bit of an odd shape. I just tried to work the point of the knife around it best I could. More meat left on that bone than a professional butcher would leave but I was quite happy with my attempt!
Leg of hogget opened up and flattened out a bit.
The Prep:
Grated garlic, lemon zest, thyme, rosemary, rapeseed oil and spring onions all mixed in a bowl then added to a foodsaver bag with the hogget and thoroughly mixed into the meat. This was left in the fridge overnight.
The Cook:
The Kamado Joe Big Joe was fired up with some Cuban Marabu from Oxford Charcoal. It’s a dense wood that gives a high heat and a slow burn. Marabu is an invasive thorn so it’s ethically sourced and provides an income to struggling Cuban farmers.
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Once the KJ was up at 160C with the heat deflectors in I dropped in 2 chunks of Sweet Chestnut from Treetops and placed a roasting tray under where the meat was going to be placed and put the meat on top.
Meater probe in and set to alert at 50C at which point I would sear it. This picture was about 20 minutes in.
Whilst the hogget was cooking I made a Turkish Shepherd’s Salad, also from the Berber & Q book: Tomatoes, cucumber, flat leaf parsley, chopped mint, spring onion (green parts only), green peppers, extra virgin olive oil, sumac and Aleppo chilli flakes.
I got the sumac and Aleppo chilli from Amazon:
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The salad looked great, love the colours.
The recipe says it will take 90 minutes to cook but this was about half that time mainly because the Shetland lamb is much smaller than other breeds so will cook quicker. I removed the deflector plates and grilled it directly over the fire.
Once the hogget hit 55C in most places on the Thermapen I took it off to rest and covered it in foil.
Whilst the hogget was resting I sliced two aubergines into 1cm discs and placed them on the Kamado Joe cast iron griddle then brushed them with garlic oil and seasoned them.
After a few minutes I flipped them over.
When they were browned and softened I plated them up and foiled them to keep warm.
Next I made Mejaderah: Caramelised onions, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, star anise, rice, lentils, turmeric, allspice and bay leaves. Once cooked and rested it was fluffed with a fork and garnished with crispy shallots, parsley and tahina sauce (tahini paste, lemon juice, garlic and water). This looked and smelt amazing, was looking forward to eating it!
Time to Serve:
Everything was ready and the hogget was rested, time to serve up.
With the hogget was green chermoula: Spring onion (green parts), coriander, flat leaf parsley, rapeseed oil, garlic, green chilli, cumin and lemon juice and garlic yoghurt: Full fat yoghurt, garlic, lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil.
The hogget was looking really juicy.
I sliced it up, very soft and plenty of juices.
Topped with the charmoula.
Time to Eat:
The full line up, what a feast! Butterflied leg of hogget with green charmoula dressing, charred aubergine, Turkish Shepherds salad 
SUMMARY:
This meal was incredible, such a lot of food but what a feast! It took a fair bit of prep to get everything ready but all of the dishes worked really well together. The hogget was fantastic, really tasty, very soft and so juicy. The green charmoula dressing and garlic yoghurt worked really well with the meat. Charred aubergine was a lovely side dish and the taste was boosted by the garlic oil. Mejaderah was so tasty, such a nice dish and one I will make more often. Turkish shepherds salad was also nice and offered a light, fresh and refreshing dish to go with all the other dishes.
Great meal for a Sunday and would work well if you were cooking for family and/or friends.
| Cook Difficulty: | 3/5 |
| Cook Duration: | Medium: 3/5 |
| Cook Equipment: | Kamado Joe Big Joe |
| Cook Method: | Indirect and Direct |
| Charcoal: | Oxford Charcoal Cuban Marabu |
| Smoking Wood: | Treetops Sweet Chestnut |
| Cook temperature: | 160C |
| Cook time: | 45 minutes indirect plus 5 minutes direct |
| Internal temperature: | 55C (Thermapen) |
| Notes: | 1: Remember the smaller Shetland legs cook quicker when planning timings. 2: Cook it for lunch not dinner as it takes some energy to do everything! |
This recipe is from Beber and Q by Josh Katz – You can buy the book by clicking the link below:
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