Slow Roast Shoulder of Lamb
We have cooked slow roast shoulder of lamb a couple of times in the past and it always looms large in our memories as one of the tastiest meals that we can remember, especially considering that it’s so easy to prepare. Kerri’s family came to visit today and so we gladly took the opportunity to cook this again.
The recipe that we’ve followed is this one, which is based on a recipe from Jamie Oliver. There are not many ingredients and it is simple to prepare, which makes the utter deliciousness all the more brilliant. The lamb cooks for a long time and becomes very tender, falling away from the bone so much that the bones come out completely clean when you remove the meat from them.
The recipe specifies a sauce made from the roasted garlic, with chicken stock, capers, mint and red wine vinegar. We’ve loved this in the past and although it might not sound like it, it does go with food in the same way that a normal gravy would. It just has fresher notes due to the mint and a slight complex bitterness from the capers. Delicious. This time we made it with half the capers and mint that the recipe specified and it was still very good.
We served this with both mashed potato and roast potatoes because different people wanted different types. Also green beans, kale and swede. The sauce magically goes with everything.
The recipe goes like this:
Ingredients:
Lamb:
* 1 (2 kg) lamb shoulder, with the bone in
* 1 bunch fresh rosemary (a large bunch, or two small bunches)
* 1 bulb of garlic, broken into unpeeled cloves (use more if you love garlic)
* olive oil
* salt
* black pepper, freshly ground
Sauce:
* 1 tablespoon flour
* 500 ml chicken stock
* 2 tablespoons salted capers, rinsed and finely chopped
* 1 large bunch fresh mint, leaves only, very finely chopped
* 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Directions
* First, preheat your oven as high as it will go.
* Using a sharp knife, score the fat layer of the lamb at about 1″ (2.5cm) intervals, then do it in the opposite direction to form a diamond pattern. I did this a bit too eagerly, making the intervals too small and cutting through the fat into the meat, but it didn’t matter.
* Pour some olive oil over your lamb, rub it in with your hands and then sprinkle liberally with salt and ground black pepper, rubbing the seasoning in well with your hands too.
* Pour a little olive oil into a lidded casserole dish and lay half of the rosemary sprigs into it, then scatter half of the garlic gloves amongst the rosemary springs.
* Place the lamb into the casserole, on top of the rosemary and garlic and scatter the rest of the rosemary and garlic cloves on top of the lamb.
* Put the lid onto the casserole and put it into the oven on the middle shelf of your pre-heated oven before turning down to 170°C (325°F), or 160°C for a fan-assisted oven.
* Cook for four hours at this temperature. It does not need much attention, it will quite happily cook away to a deliciously soft state.
* Remove the lamb from the casserole; cover it with foil and leave to rest for a while.
* Remove and discard any sprigs of rosemary in the casserole. Don’t worry about the little leaves that have fallen off the sprigs. Remove the roasted garlic cloves to a plate and let them cool a little.
* Remove all but one tablespoon of oil from the pan. We find that a LOT of oil cooks out of the lamb, and it has a strangely green hue from the rosemary. Try to remove only the oil; retain and other juices that have cooked out of the lamb.
* Take some of the roasted garlic cloves and squeeze out the soft, nutty, garlicky insides, mash them up with a spoon and put them back into the casserole.
* Place the casserole on the hob over a medium heat and stir in 1 tablespoon of flour, then stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, gradually add the chicken stock. Boil, stirring, for about 5 minutes.
* Add the finely chopped mint, capers and red wine vinegar, stirring it all in.
* Boil gently for a few minutes, then pour into a jug for serving.
* To serve the lamb, simply pull it away from the bone with a knife and fork or two forks. It should break up very easily.
* Serve the lamb with potatoes, some green vegetables and plenty of the sauce. Delicious.
Chocolate Mousse
As Stephen mentioned, my family came to visit today and requested chocolate mousse for dessert, they were particularly interested in the Baileys mousse we made recently so we made up two of those. We also made two with Cointreau which I preferred – the combination of chocolate and orange is one of my favourites.
We added some whipped cream to the top which helped to cut through the richness of the chocolate, the chocolate sprinkles on top added a great crunch.
Scottage Pie – Haggis in a Cottage Pie
It is Burns Night tomorrow, but we are otherwise occupied, so we had to cook haggis tonight. We tried a twist on the idea though – doing it in a cottage pie style, with the haggis filling underneath and mashed tatties and neeps (i.e. potatoes and swede) on top.
We chopped up a couple of large potatoes and half a swede, then steamed them until soft and then mashed them all up together with some butter, salt and pepper. We skinned the haggis and chopped up the filling. We put this into a saucepan with a little water to soften and moisten so that we could layer it into the oven dish easily.
When these were both done, we assembled it in the dish just like a cottage pie and baked for almost an hour. It was a partial success – the haggis wasn’t as fully flavoured as it has been when we’ve had it cooked on its own. It was worth a try though. We figured that the lack of flavour was due to the lack of sticky “edge pieces” on the haggis, which needed more cooking to achieve. It would have been better to have the haggis layer in the oven on its own for at least half an hour and then put the mashed potato and swede on top afterwards.
I called it Scottage Pie, given that it’s a Scottish version of Cottage Pie. I know, not that clever, but it amused me at the time.
We haven’t had any whisky yet – will be having that shortly!
Chorizo and Beans
When I started cooking this I intended for it to become a soup. I didn’t follow a particular recipe but took inspiration from Jenny Chandler’s “The Food of Northern Spain” and Jonathan’s Chorizo, butterbean and passata stew. The end result was closer to Jonathan’s dish as I left it to reduce right down until it was sticky and thick.
I started by slowly sweating off some onion before adding (rather too much) parprika and some garlic. Next in went the chorizo which fried away until tender and then in went the haricot beans. At this point I added some wine (in retrospect, this wasn’t needed), stock and tomatoes and left it to cook away for about 45 minutes.
We ate it heaped onto some brilliant Gail’s bread and, despite my heavy-handed attitude with the paprika, we both loved it. It would be great with some other, lighter tapas dishes too.
Lentils with Spaghetti and Rice
It’s not often that Stephen and I have different dinners (unless something goes wrong and he perseveres with the wrongness while I reach for the toast) but tonight he fancied rice and I fancied pasta. I probably should have had rice too since we had spaghetti last night but, as much as I like rice, I prefer pasta. It struck me while cooking this that it’s very similar to a bolognaise sauce, just without the meat, so it seemed natural to eat it with spaghetti.
We’ve cooked this before, tonight I did it slightly differently. I left out the bacon, roasted tomatoes and mushrooms, substituted half the stock for red wine, added lots of thyme and some tomato puree.
It tasted really good before serving: rich and earthy with a subtle sweetness from the tomatoes, but it became a bit lost when mixed with the rice and pasta. The original recipe was for a lentil lasagne which had the addition of bechamel which I think would really help the balance of flavours.
Puttanesca
There’s not much we can say about this that we haven’t said before and we toyed with the idea of not posting it at all but, given that this is a diary of our dinners, here it is.
We both got home late this evening and didn’t have any plans for dinner. This is very quick to make, doesn’t require any precise measurements and can easily be made from the contents of the kitchen cupboard. It never disappoints either. We ate it in front of Masterchef.
Chicken Casserole
We’ve not had this for a while, which is odd considering it’s so cold outside and this is perfect comfort food. It’s relatively healthy too which is appropriate as we are both trying to be more conscious about what we eat.
Stephen jointed a chicken yesterday and I used the carcass to make stock today, the chicken breasts are in the freezer for use at a later date.
We mostly stuck to the original recipe but left out the bacon (pesky healthy eating) and it was very good. I should have remembered to skin the chicken first though as it was slightly too oily and I think I prefer it with mashed potatoes on the side instead of potatoes cooked within the dish.
Chicken Casserole
Serves four
2lb chicken pieces with bones (skinned!)
2 tablespoons flour
Salt and pepper
Oil
125g lardons (optional)
2 medium onions, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed
One large carrot, diced
500ml chicken stock
300ml white wine
4 sprigs thyme, chopped
Six sage leaves, chopped (optional)
Bay leaf
Two medium potatoes, chunked (optional)
If using bacon, start by browning until the fat has rendered and then remove from the pan.
Coat the chicken in the seasoned flour. Heat the oil and brown chicken on all sides (in batches if necessary) – about ten minutes. Deglaze the pan with some of the wine and reserve the juices.
Remove the chicken and add more oil if necessary.
Add the onions and cook slowly until translucent. Add celery and carrots and saute for a further five minutes. Add the crushed garlic and cook for a minute or so longer.
Stir in the excess flour and cook out for a couple of minutes. If you’ve used bacon then add that back to the pan. Return the chicken to the pan, add the stock, reserved juices, wine and herbs.
Season and cook for one hour on a low heat.
Check for seasoning, add diced potato (if using) and cook for a further hour (without lid if necessary to reduce liquid).
Check for seasoning and serve with extra vegetables and/or bread.
The Thai
As I mentioned at the start of the year, Stephen and I have resolved to post more about restaurants as well as food we’ve cooked ourselves. Last night, we went for a quick dinner at The Thai which has been open for a couple of months near where we live (I can’t find a homepage but there’s a restaurant in Ealing too).
We first visited just after Christmas and really enjoyed the food, I chose the green curry that time which I think is always a good test. Their version was a lot sweeter than I’d had before but it was good and pretty well balanced overall, plenty of creamy sauce which is important.
Last night, we both made slightly healthier choices. I chose the Pad Prik with beef and Stephen the steamed seabass. I enjoyed mine, again it was sweeter than I’m used to but it worked well with the intense heat of the chill and there was plenty of iti. Stephen’s was also good and came with a huge amount of interestingly flavoured broth and some tasty fermented soy beans.
We were only looking for something quick (both of us being keen to get home for Masterchef and Big Chef takes on Little Chef) and were impressed by the speed of the service. Very good value too, particularly for such large portions.
Shepherd’s Pie
As regular readers will know, lamb features regularly on the Dinner Diary menu. We’re both big fans and it’s a versatile meat. Simply fried with rosemary and garlic and served with sauteed potatoes, it’s a quick mid-week meal. Shoulder, cooked long and slow in a casserole is a wonderful treat on a wintery Sunday. Lamb mince however doesn’t fill me with such culinary joy.
We went through a phase of eating a lot of lamb kofte, trying different spice mixes until we got the seasoning just as we wanted. However, one fatal evening these lovingly prepared Turkish treats found their way from the freezer and into what was supposed to be an Italian style dish of (beef) meatballs with spaghetti and tomato sauce. The shock of tasting lamb when I was expecting beef and the clash of flavours put me off them completely and I haven’t eaten them since.
However, we recently had lunch at the Hinds Head in Bray which is owned by Heston Blumenthal. We were pretty certain that we would both enjoy the food (the famous triple cooked chips definitely lived up to their reputation as the best chips in the world) but neither of us expected to find a dish that would rank as one of the best we’ve ever eaten and, had I given it any thought beforehand, I wouldn’t have expected that dish to be Shepherd’s Pie. It was a joy to taste (sadly Stephen had ordered it while I opted for the steak so he got the lion’s share), the different cuts of lamb all leant different textures and the sauce was thick and full of sweet, earthy flavours.
Trying to create something similar at home was no easy task: lamb belly is hard to find and lamb shoulder generally comes in large pieces. We were almost lucky with the sweetbreads, the butcher assured us he had some but on arriving at the shop he realised they had already been saved for some other lucky shopper. So, what we ended up with was some lamb mince, neck fillet and kidney:
We started by seasoning the mince with salt and pepper. We then cut the lamb neck fillets into cubes, then skinned and cored the kidneys before cutting them into small cubes and then coating them and the neck fillet cubes in seasoned flour. We browned the meat in batches and then removing it from the pan. We deglazed the pan with some red wine and reserved those juices. Next in went the onion which we sweated off before adding the celery and carrot, last in was the garlic. When that was all cooked through, we returned the meat to the pan and added the rest of the ingredients.
The pan simmered away on a low heat for two and a half hours before we spooned it into an oven dish and topped with mustardy mashed potato. Into the oven so the potato could brown and served with a selection of vegetables.
I had some reservations about trying to re-create something that was so delicious and wondered if it would be best consigned to memory, I’m really glad we did though because this was a real triumph. Not exactly the same as the Hind’s Head version but rich and sweet and lamby nonetheless. We loved it.
Serves Four
500g lamb mince
150g lamb’s kidney, diced and dusted with seasoned flour
250g lamb neck fillet, diced
1 onion, finely diceed
1 large carrot, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
salt and pepper
1 sprig rosemary
1 sprig thyme
250ml red wine
Tablespoon tomato puree
500ml lamb stock
Tablespoon worcester sauce
100ml milk
1kg potatoes
Butter, to taste
Milk, to taste
1 tablespoon mustard
Liver and Bacon Mash
Having watched Masterchef again last night where two of the contestants cooked liver and bacon, we both really started to crave it. We had to give it a bit of a twist though, so we put bacon into our mashed potato rather than having separate rashers of bacon. You can’t see a lot of it in the picture, but it was definitely in there, along with a dollop of wholegrain mustard.
We simply coated the slices of liver in seasoned flour and pan fried them. For the gravy, we cooked some onions down slowly until they started to sweeten, then stirred in some flour before adding some red wine, beef stock and the smallest splash of red wine vinegar and simmered away for a while.
All in all it was a really tasty dinner, especially considering that two portions (i.e. four slices) of liver cost the princely sum of £1. So credit-crunch (bleah) friendly too.
