In USA barbecue meats are often paired with spicy and smoky sauces, influenced by the cuisine of the nearby Caribbean. Serve slow-cooked shoulder merino in soft buns with lettuce and hot Jamaican-inspired sauce and I guarantee you’ll be popular!
SERVES 6-10

1 – 1.5KG lamb shoulder

MARINADE:

2 medium onions, chopped
4 spring onions
15 whole allspice
3 T grated fresh ginger
3 bay leaves
2 T fresh thyme
5 cloves garlic
4 T soy sauce
2-3 small scotch bonnet peppers (or other hot peppers/chillies)
Juice from 3 limes (or lemons)
4 T cooking oil
¼ cup water

BARBECUE SAUCE:

¼ c marinade (above)
½ c tomato sauce
1 T soy sauce
Water to thin

TO SERVE:

Soft bread rolls
Iceberg lettuce

Make the marinade by putting all ingredients in a blender or mortar and pestle and blending until smooth.
Smother the shoulder in the marinade (save ¼ cup of this for sauce, see below) and leave for as long as you can! I never have time so it’s usually about 30 minutes, but overnight would be fab.

Here’s how to get a really smoky flavour into your slow-cooked meat:
(check out video on www.worldkitchen.co.nz/season-3 Jamaica ep)
Take an oven dish and in one corner build a small handful of “edible twigs” - I use small dry branches of bay tree, thyme and rosemary stalks.
Balance a wire rack over the top and place marinated lamb shoulder on this. Cover and tightly seal with foil, remembering what corner your twig pile is!
Now place the corner (with the twigs) of the tray on the stove top over an element/burner turned to a medium heat. Be patient and leave it to heat until you can hear the crackling of your smouldering branches. Once this has died down put whole tray into an over heated to 180 C. Leave to cook for 45 minutes.

Remove the foil, then remove the remains of the twig pile and transfer the lamb from the rack to the oven dish, add ¼ cup water to the oven dish, and continue to cook the lamb until it’s cooked through and skin is well-browned and crispy – about 15-20 minutes more. Lamb should easily pull away from the bone.

Make your jerk sauce by putting remaining marinade in a saucepan with tomato and soy sauces and simmering for 10-15 minutes until thickened.

To serve: Chop and pull apart the lamb meat and serve on buns with lashings of BBQ sauce and shredded iceberg lettuce.