52 Cookbooks #16: Slow-cooked shoulder of lamb

This week I've cooked lamb - well it was Easter and lamb's traditional for Easter Day lunch (even though we have our main meal in the evening).

I've gone with the slow-roast, fast-prep leg of lamb with white wine, rosemary, sage & bay from Lorraine Pascale's Fast, Fresh and Easy Food. Let me tell you this was definitely easy, and tasty!

We're not big white wine drinkers (it's a different matter when it comes to red) and luckily I managed to rustle up a bottle of white wine, which I vaguely remember bringing home from some drinks in the City - it's best not to ask!

This recipe involves seasoning half a shoulder of lamb and putting it in a pot with two quartered onions (I only had one so added a couple of carrots instead of the second onion), some bay, rosemary and sage, some unpeeled garlic and half a bottle of white wine (the recipe says any sort).

Sorted. 

This cooks for four hours at a low temperature. After two and a half hours Lorraine says to put the potatoes into the oven to roast. She has you peeling them, and tossing them in oil when you put the lamb in the oven. She says they won't go brown in the oil and she was right, they started to go black as the starch seeped out. Hmmmnn...

Nor did the potatoes come out golden and crunchy after an hour and a half at 130 degrees, they needed a blast for fifteen minutes or so at 200 degrees. But that did the trick and they were lovely, no off-putting black starchy bits now at all:

The lamb itself was gorgeous. Very tender and quite fragrant. Yum. 

It was nice to have a relatively light dinner but one with the veg cooked in the same pot (for the record the peas are part of the recipe and not some greenery added for MOH's benefit - for a change!)  

And there's leftovers too... Yay!

I'm thinking either a lamb and lentil moussaka or a lasagne. That all depends on MOH - he's not a massive fan of aubergines (he calls them the Devil's vegetable) - and if I think I can wangle an aubergine onto the menu this week!

Anyway, the verdict:

  • It was very easy...
  • The lamb was very tender and tasted beautiful (even if I do say so myself!)
  • MOH said it was "very nice and very tasty" and has agreed to moussaka too
  • I wouldn't peel the potatoes so early, nor would I rely on roasting them at 130 degrees...  

As usual, I'm linking this post with

Mary at Keynko

so take a look at what else people have cooked this week.