Slow-braised Shoulder of Lamb

Friends were coming to stay and I needed a plan. We have a small 2 bedroom flat, they were a family of 4 and while sleeping arrangements were easy to organise (they take main bedroom plus 2 air beds we go to guest room – shuffle, shuffle) the ‘Welcome-to-London’ meal had me mulling over ideas a week ahead. I needed to do something easy to serve on a weekday evening, flexible to feed 4 hungry males and 2 food-friendly ladies, go with red wine – we had some special reds we had brought from Australia we wanted to share – but above all be delicious. Brona’s a very, very good cook, her boys eat most things (fussy not tolerated) however, most importantly, I didn’t want to spend all my time in the kitchen when there was talking to do!

I figured a lamb joint was a good bet. Robust enough for the wine but not as ‘heavy’ as beef. But which way to cook it?  I turned to Twitter and sent out a plea. Ping, the suggestions came back all good, some with helpful links. @R_McCormack suggested I go classic with rosemary, garlic and salt “easy peasy”, @Juliannabarnaby suggested this spiced shoulder of lamb, @LexEats sent me to @shedlikesfood for an excellent dish, @goodshoeday directed me to a fabulous bbq dish and @feastwithbron tickled my tastebuds with this fabulous Persian lamb dish. That last dish was almost my choice. Not only do I seem to share Bron’s love of Middle-Eastern food but it was dish I could prepare the night before and have the flavour improve from re-heating the next day. But, of course being a food blogger, I decided to build another version of a slow braised lamb dish having been inspired. Many thanks to all my tweeting friends for pushing me in the right direction.

So here’s the final dish. It was easy to prepare in advance, if a bit time consuming, and well, well worth the effort. On the evening it was a simple matter to reheat and serve. I made a wonderful Ottolenghi rice and lentil dish, Kosheri, from his cookbook to serve with it and it was fabulous. May I also add, the lamb dish continues to deepen in flavour after a few days in the fridge (we had leftovers). And it went well with the wines (many, many wines and port – whose idea was that, please, ah.. mine. Ahem).

Slow-braised Shoulder of Lamb

Serves 8 – 10

2.2 kg Shoulder of lamb, on the bone, trimmed of fat
3 onions, sliced
200 mls white wine
3 cms stick cinnamon
6-8 juniper berries
3 red peppers, deseeded, cut into eight sections
3 cloves garlic, unpeeled
4 medium carrots, peeled, each chopped into 3
1 bulb fennel, quartered
4 – 5 medium tomatoes, quartered
some fresh sprigs of thyme or 2 bay leaves

Marinade
3 tablespoons herbes de Provence, rosemary, savory, marjoram (or oregano) and thyme
1 tablespoon mixed ground cumin, coriander, fennel, I always have this blend in a grinder
lemon rind (4 x3 cms peels approx)
fresh ground black pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 achovies, salted and preserved in oil, chopped finely
1 clove garlic, minced

Trim a lot of the fat off the shoulder of lamb.

Mix the marinade ingredients together and rub all over the shoulder of lamb. Cover or place in a bag and leave in the fridge overnight or at least a few hours.

Remove the meat, scrape off, but retain, as much of the marinade mix as you can. Now brown the shoulder in a large suitable casserole dish that will hold the shoulder comfortably (you scrape the marinade off simply to stop the herbs in it from possibly burning and tasting bitter).

When browned all over remove the joint from the dish and sit on a plate to gather any juices.

Add the onions and soften them but don not brown. Add the carrots, fennel stir and cook for a minute then add the reserved marinade and the wine, scrapping any bits off the bottom of the casserole dish. Add the juniper berries and cinnamon. Add the unpeeled garlic, red peppers and fresh herbs.

Return the meat and any of its juices to the casserole dish.

Cover and place in the oven at 160C for 1.5 hours checking on it, turning it every now and then. Add more splashes of wine if the liquid is drying off, it should be fine . You may only need a small amount of additional wine as a lot of juices will come from the meat.

Turn down heat to 120C and cook for another 2 hours.

The meat should now be almost ready to serve. Carefully remove the bone, the meat should easily fall off the bone. Just try not and break the flesh up too much. Return meat to casserole (Retain bones for later stock making). Taste and season.

Now this is ready to serve but ideally you make this at least a day ahead to this stage, then you allow the dish to cool, refridgerate it and when needed you reheat it gently. You can even scrape off some fat before reheating if that sort of stuff bothers you but remember, fat = flavour so don’t go all Superslim Sally. The flavour definitely improves if made a day before serving. We also had it after five days in fridge and it was super delicious. Heat through thoroughly.

Print version here

Tagged as: casserole, lamb, shoulder