Lamb Shanks, Garlic Scallops and Potatoes with Chives on the BBQ

We had planned to make this special Failsafe BBQ over the Australia Day long weekend, but the rain and floods dampened that idea, so armed with a gorgeous sunny day the weekend after and to the sound of mowers in the back ground we decided that this weekend sounds more Australian than ever for a BBQ feast. Since it’s a BBQ which is my husband’s domain, I’ll hand it over to him! Enjoy!

So it’s Australia day – so we had to have lamb, Sam Kekovich told us we had to…. and because we love seafood –we had to have that as well. Now we all know about Surf & Turf (prawns and beef), but what goes with lamb – and what’s failsafe… And the answer is scallops! Not just because we love scallops but our 3 year old keeps coming back for more.

Cooking on the BBQ – the secret to cooking lamb shanks on the BBQ is low and slow – it’s better to cook the meat at a lower temperature for longer…  The easiest way to cook the lamb shanks is to pass it to your BBQ Chef and say “cook this”. Too easy, but if they just look at you blankly you can ‘help’ them out a little. So we’ll be using an indirect cooking method (which basically means there won’t be any heat directly under the meat.  This works best using a BBQ with a hood (it basically becomes an oven – and if all else fails use the oven – just don’t tell anyone). If you’re BBQ has 6 burners, burner  1,2,5,6 will be on low, and 3,4 will be off – and this is where the meat will be cooked. If you have 3 burners – 1,3 on low, 2 off – cook on 2 – getting the idea… If you don’t have a hood you can turn the burners on low. You’ll need to brown the meat, and then wrap in alfoil and then cook. If the instructions for your BBQ didn’t get thrown out and you get desperate…

We used the marinade out of the Fed Up cook book. Here is the Thermomix directions for it:

Pear and Celery marinade

2 tinned pear halves
150g celery sticks
1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon salt
30g brown sugar
½ leek
2 shallots
120g cup pear syrup from tinned pears
20g vegetable oil

Place all ingredients into the Thermomix bowl. Puree on speed 7 for 20 seconds.
Coat the shanks, and marinate until ready to cook.

If you can remove plates from your BQQ, remove one. Oil the centre plate. Turn on the appropriate combination of burners on low. Preheat for 10 minutes with the hood down. Place the shanks on the centre plate and cook for around 90 minutes (or until clear juices when you skewer the lamb).

Prepare the Potatoes.
Peel and half the potatoes. Enough to feed your family and guests. Place on a double layer of alfoil and smother in big blobs of nuttelex and fresh chives. Wrap up in the alfoil.

With 30 minutes to go, place the potatoes one the BBQ over the lit burners. Cook for about 30 minutes.

Prepare the scallops

To give you an idea, we used 500g scallops for 4 adults and 3 kids. Pat the scallops dry to remove all the excess moisture. Chop up garlic in the Thermomix – as much as you want (I think we did about eight cloves).

Put the scallops in a bowl, throw in the garlic, and add a good amount of nuttelex to coat. Mix altogether as much as possible.

The lamb should be finished  – so pull off, cover and allow to rest (potatoes are still going).

If you took off a plate, chuck it back on. Oil the plate. Still on low heat, throw on the scallops, and cook for a couple of minutes on each side. Don’t overcook… they should turn white from opaque.

Plate up and enjoy!

Cheers, Jim.