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Shane Delia: 12-hour roast lamb with pistachio and green-olive tabbouleh

Shane Delia: 12-hour roast lamb with pistachio and green-olive tabbouleh

“This is the heart and soul of Maha; it sums up what we’re about. Good product, simple and humble cooking, maximum flavour. Try to find a lamb with a good covering of fat because there are no added fats in the cooking process and this will help it to stay moist.” You’ll need to begin this recipe 3 days ahead.

Shane Delia: 12-hour roast lamb with pistachio and green-olive tabbouleh

Serves 6
Cooking Time Prep time 45 mins, cook 12 hrs (plus marinating)
30 gm   (¼ cup) cumin seeds
2   garlic heads
2 tbsp   sumac
Zested   rind of 3 lemons
2 tbsp   sea salt flakes
1   lamb leg (2.4kg), shank end detached
Green-olive tabbouleh
200 gm   pistachio kernels
100 gm   coarse burghul
1 cup   (loosely packed) flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup   (loosely packed) mint leaves, coarsely chopped
150 gm   Sicilian green olives, pitted, crushed
4   garlic cloves, crushed
Finely   grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
2 tbsp   olive oil


1 Dry-roast cumin seeds, cool slightly, then coarsely pound in a mortar and pestle and set aside. Pound garlic in a mortar and pestle with a pinch of sea salt until a coarse paste forms, add cumin seeds, sumac, lemon rind and sea salt flakes and grind until a paste forms.
2 Score lamb with a sharp knife and rub garlic paste over lamb. Place in an airtight non-reactive container and refrigerate to marinate (2 days).
3 Preheat oven to 110C. Transfer lamb to a roasting pan and roast, basting occasionally, until the meat falls from the bone and the outside is golden brown and sticky (12 hours). Remove from oven and keep warm.
4 For green-olive tabbouleh, increase oven to 170C. Scatter pistachios on an oven tray and roast until golden (4-6 minutes). Cool, then coarsely crush and set aside in a large bowl. Meanwhile, place burghul in a bowl, cover completely with warm water and stand until tender (30-40 minutes). Drain well, then add to pistachios with remaining ingredients, season to taste and serve with warm lamb.

This recipe is from the April 2010 issue of Australian Gourmet Traveller.

Drink Suggestion Bottle-aged Coonawarra cabernet.

RECIPE Shane Delia, Maha, Melbourne PHOTOGRAPHY William Meppem STYLING Geraldine Munoz DRINK SUGGESTION Max Allen


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