Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from chef Neil Perry's book Rockpool. Neil also shared some helpful cooking tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page. For your convenience, we've converted the measures — with as much accuracy as possible — from Australian to American. For those who have metric equipment and wish to follow Neil's recipe to the milliliter, we've included the original measures too.
To read more about Neil and Australian cuisine, click here.
The availability of Illabo lamb on the Australian market is due to Tony Lehmann's efforts. He is one of the few Australian producers who understands what the market wants, and delivers, in no uncertain terms, a quality product that is markedly better than the bland generic produce grown for the large corporations. It is because of suppliers like Tony that the quality and variety of fine produce we have available in Australia is maintained. This is the driving force behind fabulous multicultural cooking.
This is the dish of the moment at Rockpool. The lamb is only 6 weeks old, and has a dressed body weight of about 8 kg (17 1/2 lbs). It is flavoursome, tender and has a wonderful clean taste that is unmatched. The accompanying sauce is rich, flavoursome and has no Asian ingredients, except for a little ginger, for good luck. The only necessary addition is a green salad à la Rockpool.
The recipe for Tomato Jam yields 750 ml (3 cups). It is also very good with raw fish, and will keep for up to a month in the refrigerator.
