Lamb Flaps

LAMP FLAPS

Sticky lamp flaps (ribs)

by LYDIA KAILAP

INGREDIENTS • 2 lamb flaps • I teaspoon salt • I cup dark soy sauce • Half a cup jam (any flavour) • 2 cloves garlic, crushed • 1 inch piece ginger chopped finely • I small chilli – or to taste • Watercress to garnish

METHOD Bring a saucepan of salted water (1 teaspoon of salt) to the boil that is large enough to fit the lamb flaps. Simmer gently until the meat is soft but not yet falling off the bone (around 45 minutes).

Allow to cool.

In the meantime Mix together the soy sauce, jam, garlic, ginger and chilli to form a marinade.

Marinate the meat for at least an hour.

Barbecue or grill until the meat is glazed and sticky.

Garnish with watercress

*The recipe also works well with other cuts of lamb but if you are using less fatty cuts of lamb, they do not need to be boiled first.

by SUSAN MERRELL

The popularity in of lamb flaps in PNG is hardly surprising: they’re cheap, a good source of protein and utterly delicious.

It’s the fat content that makes them so chin-drippingly delectable (any chef will tell you that the fat is where the flavour lies) - but it is the high fat content that fuels the controversy over the importation of lamb flaps into the Pacific from New Zealand and Australia.

With problematic and significant levels of obesity in most Pacific Islands and considering the calorie content of lamb flaps, Fiji banned their sale in 2000.

Fiji has the highest death rate from obesitylinked Type II Diabetes in the world at 188 deaths per 100,000 people. In major Fijian hospitals there are three amputations per day (usually lower limbs) caused by the effects of diabetes. The population of PNG also has significant levels of obesity resulting in diabetes.

But is it really the fault of the lamb flap? Fiji’s incidence of diabetes has not abated since they banned the controversial meat but is, conversely, increasing.

It’s generally believed that Australians and New Zealanders do not eat lamb flaps: that they are fed only to the animals – well that’s what they think. Really, the very name is enough to turn you off the product isn’t it? Anything with ‘flap’ in the name does not sound delicious …or even edible. And so, in some quite up-market Sydney and Melbourne restaurants ‘Lamb ribs’ have been making an appearance on the menus. A lamb flap by any other name… And what’s more, the doner kebab beloved of late night revellers is almost pure lamb flap.

IT’S ALL IN THE PREPARATION I’m told by our guest chef, Lydia Kailap of Ziah’s Cafe in Kimbe, West New Britain and previously of Ricochet Café in Port Moresby, that rendering the fat in the cooking is a way to minimize the calories. Here’s her recipe for lamb flaps (it works well with other cuts of lamb too, she tells me.) And remember, there is no ‘bad’ food – everything is good in moderation. •