I once ate a spectacular grilled lamb at a local Thai restauraunt one night and I wanted to do something similar from home. Call me stingy if you want, but when I saw a small rack of lamb on special at the supermarket one day I decided to give it ago.

This dish features lemongrass, a popular flavour in Vietnamese cuisine. The original recipe called for a tamarind sauce, but I gave it a miss as I was too lazy and it tastes great on its own or with any other sauce really.

Preparation time: 10 minutes plus 2-3 hours marination
Cooking time: 10-15 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients

• 4 stalks lemongrass, trimmed and minced
• 4 shallots, peeled
• 2 small hot chillies
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon oil (vegetable, peanut)
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 small racks of lamb, about 500grams each, cut into riblets
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. Combine lemon grass with shallots, chillies, sugar and oil in a mortar and pestle or a food processor. Being poor I don’t have either of these so I minced it finely with a knife. Add fish sauce. Sprinkle lamb with salt and pepper and marinate it in this mixture for 2 to 3 hours, wrapped and refrigerated.
2. Grill under high heat for 10 to 15 minutes, turning as necessary to avoid it turning into a giant blob of char. Serve it smokin hot with rice and your favourite dip baby!

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