ARNI MOURI

INGREDIENTS

12kg lamb (approx weight) legs and neck cut off

2 meat flaps (from chest/stomach part of lamb).

2 tbsp unsalted butter

2 large onions, finely chopped

2kg medium grain rice

salt, to taste

pepper, to taste

ground cinnamon, to taste

1kg beef mince

METHOD

Place unsalted butter in a large frying pan and melt on medium heat.

Add chopped onion and caramelise lightly. Then add beef mince and brown.

Season with salt, pepper and cinnamon and keep stirring for 5 minutes, set aside once ready.

Half fill a 10Ltr saucepan with water and bring to a boil. Add 3 tbsp salt, 2 tbsp ground cinnamon and 1 tbsp ground pepper.

Add 2kg rice and mix. Once rice and water come to a boil, take off heat, stir and leave covered for 10 minutes. (It will absorb any excess water)

Add beef mixture to rice and combine.

Rub salt, pepper and cinnamon on both the inside and outside of the lamb before stuffing with the rice mixture.

Sew up the lamb openings with cooking twine and use lamb flaps as patches to sew up areas that are too thin (eg stomach of lamb)

PREPARING OF WOOD OVEN

1 ½ - 2 hours of feeding your woodoven, wood to really fire up retaining heat.

Generally you know the oven is ready to be loaded up with the stuffed lamb when the inside of the brick walls are white.

Clear the wood out of the centre of the oven towards the sides.

Place stuffed lamb on rack in a Mouri/cooking baking tray. Add 1 glass of water, cover with baking paper and seal with 3 layers of heavy duty foil.

Place in hot wood oven and brick up.

Take out 8-10 hours later.