Braised lamb brisket with chestnuts on rice
Lamb brisket braised with fermented red bean curd and mature ginger until tender, with in-season chestnuts soaking up the juices — sweet, savoury and warming, served with lettuce and rice.
- 2 hr
- Serves 3
- Braise
- Medium
Why it suits you: Yang-deficient people feel the cold, with chilly hands, feet and lower back, and they are the first to notice Hanlu's cooler mornings and evenings. Lamb warms the middle and kidneys and builds qi and blood, chestnuts — 'the fruit of the kidneys' — strengthen the kidneys and sinews, and ginger and fermented bean curd warm the stomach. Braised until tender, it warms you through, with lettuce to freshen.
Method
Prep 20 min · Cook 100 min- 1Put the lamb in a pan of cold water with 2 slices of ginger, bring to the boil and blanch for 5 minutes, then rinse and drain. Soak the tangerine peel and scrape off the pith; mash the bean curd.
- 2Heat the oil, fry the ginger and garlic until fragrant, then stir-fry the lamb over a high heat until lightly browned and splash in the wine.
- 3Stir in the bean curd, add the water, tangerine peel and sugar, bring to the boil, then cover and braise over a low heat for 1 hour.
- 4Add the chestnuts and braise for 30 minutes more until the lamb is tender and the chestnuts are soft, then reduce the sauce over a high heat.
- 5Wash the lettuce and serve it blanched or raw alongside the lamb and rice.
Cautions
- Lamb and chestnuts are both warming, so skip this with a dry mouth, sore throat, spots or a fever; chestnuts are starchy, so you can eat less rice.
Chef's tips
- Adding ginger and a splash of wine when blanching takes away the lamb's gaminess; add the chestnuts later and stop once a chopstick slides in, or they'll crumble.
The TCM view
Lamb is sweet and hot, entering the spleen and kidneys, warming the middle and kidneys and replenishing qi — the Bencao Gangmu says it 'warms the middle and tonifies deficiency'. Chestnuts are sweet and warm, strengthening the kidneys, sinews and spleen; Sun Simiao called them 'the fruit of the kidneys'. Ginger warms the middle and dispels cold; tangerine peel moves qi and cuts the lamb's richness.
