Deliver me

It's a funny thing - well funny to me, although I can tell you're thinking, ''Oh pray tell, what are you finding ridiculous this week?'' - that a sheep, once slaughtered, can fit inside a wine box.

This isn't something you've really wondered about, I know, but that's how my lambs are delivered. I'll come home and perched on the little iron table is a bloodstained wine box. So can you order this through Woolworths home delivery? Not sure, but I hazard a guess not.

The lambs come from my friend Jeff Fook, and before you get too squeamish, he also tossed a not-too-happy pig's head on the front seat of the ute, so the lamb seems the more pleasant topic. Again, I live in hope that Buddhist reincarnation isn't our destiny, otherwise I'm coming back as a fat turkey in November, all full of hope.

The latest delivery is a lovely lamb, two hearty-looking legs, two complete shoulders, my favourite cut, one that can be slow-roasted so easily, but you don't need me to tell you that. Then you get the chops and cutlets, there's no ceremony here, it's all straight off his backyard meat saw and can be a little crooked, but this is super-fresh local lamb, with no carbon miles other than the three or so that are between his place and mine.

Buried deep are the neck and other offcuts you tend not to see in the supermarket so much. It's here that I find what I'm looking for - the lamb breast. I guess it's more like the rib cage, and usually it's the dog's dinner, because the time needed to do anything interesting with this by far exceeds its value. More likely I'll just grab the chops, season them and have a grill-up.

However, I've been waiting for this package for a few weeks now because I found a dish that sounded interesting using the ribs. Here's how it came about.

As you know, I like social media - well, like is a strange word these days, but it's a useful distraction from life, peering into the lives of people doing stuff you think is cool. Giles Coren is a food critic in the badlands of British dining, where they can pretty well say anything, unlike here where you get into all sorts of strife, and in one of his random tweets he mentioned lamb prepared in the Sainte-Menehould style. Which is lamb breast poached in an aromatic stock, then coated in breadcrumbs and fried. It's a quite fatty part, so don't do this if you value longevity over living.

So as I open my wine box of lamb parts, I'm looking for this part from the depths, and here I'm using, staying on theme with British food writers, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's version. You could just bite the bullet and confit the ribs in duck fat - hear what I'm saying, poach a fatty lamb breast in duck fat. Did you hear that? My heart just skipped a beat, but I'm game, are you? Just kidding, but I will poach it in lamb stock at much lower temperatures than what Fearnley-Whittingstall suggests. I always make a lamb stock out all these offcuts, then it's there when you need it, like now.

The important bits are pressing the breast overnight as it chills so you get nice even compact sections to crumb.

Bryan Martin is a winemaker at Ravensworth and Clonakilla, bryanmartin.com.au

Lamb breast Sainte Menehould

2 lamb breasts, trimmed of all excess fat (that's a trick directive, you don't need to do this; include some red wine in your diet and you'll be fine)

80g salt (just in case the high fat content doesn't get you)

3L water

8 cups lamb stock

(see right)

Dijon mustard

flour

2 eggs, beaten

breadcrumbs, homemade or use Panko

grapeseed oil for frying

aioli, to serve (see right)

Dissolve salt in three litres of water. Submerge lamb in the liquid for about 12 hours, then drain.

Place meat in a roasting tray. Warm the stock to a simmer and cover lamb breast with stock. Place in a 100C oven for six hours - the lamb should be tender but not falling apart. Remove carefully and drain.

Pull the rib bones out. Cut the meat into batons, two centimetres wide and eight centimetres long. Place these on a flat tray, cover with cling film and weigh down. Chill overnight.

Brush each baton with a smear of mustard. Roll in flour, then egg and finally breadcrumbs. Make sure they are totally covered - press down to get a good amount of crumb on each.

Heat about one centimetre of grapeseed oil in a frypan and cook the ribs at a fairly high heat until they are golden brown. Drain and serve with lashings of aioli.

Lamb stock

oil or butter for frying

2 onions, diced

2 carrots, diced

1 stalk celery

2-3 cloves garlic, smashed

300ml red wine

1 tin peeled tomatoes

a sachet of herbs and spice (bay, thyme, parsley stems, pepper, star anise)

2kg meaty lamb bones, roasted in the oven

Saute the onion, the carrot and the celery at a fairly high heat in order to slightly caramelise them. Deglaze the pan with wine, then add everything else (including the roasted bones). Cover completely with water and cook at a low heat for six to eight hours. Strain and remove fat.

Aioli

1 head garlic

olive oil to roast

1 egg yolk

1 tsp mustard

juice of one lemon

200ml light olive oil

salt and pepper

Roast the garlic whole in a hot oven (drizzled with oil) until soft. Cool a little, then pull the cooked garlic cloves out of their skins and mash. Whisk the egg yolk with the lemon juice and mustard. Very slowly drizzle in the oil, whisking continuously until an emulsion forms. Continue to add oil. Season to taste and use extra lemon juice to balance. Stir in the garlic.