Name: Stewed Lamb Spine (羊蝎子)
Yield: Serves 2
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 3 star anise pods; 8 white cardamom pods; 1 garlic clove, peeled and sliced; 1 whole dried red chile pepper; 2 tablespoons soy sauce; 1½-inch (4 cm) piece fresh ginger, peeled and sliced; 1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns; 1 tablespoon Shaoxing cooking wine; 6 black peppercorns; 3 cloves; 1 tablespoon vegetable oil; ½ teaspoon salt; 2 green onions, trimmed and cut into 2-inch (5 cm) segments; 1 teaspoon sweet flour sauce; 1 tablespoon sugar; 1½-inch (4 cm) cinnamon stick; 2 black cardamom pods, cracked; 1 pound (450 g) whole lamb spine, cut into 4- to 5-inch (10 to 12 cm) pieces; 3 bay leaves; 1 tablespoon fennel seeds

Preparation info

Serves
2

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Xi'an Famous Foods

By Jason Wang

Published 2020

About

Lamb spine was a common dish around Xi’an when I was a kid, but in the States we really had to hustle for these. We’d buy them off the meat stick stands around Flushing for cheap, or make the rounds with our go-to lamb butchers to see if we could get enough for a day. Because of the supply’s irregularity, though, we eventually had to take this dish off our menu, which is a shame because it’s really fucking delicious. This dish balances the sweetness of caramelization with the savory lamb, f