Braised Shoulder Of Lamb by Mark Morris

Get yourself a shoulder of Lamb… you might want to ask the butcher to split it for you, you want either the blade, or the ball and socket joint... both if your cooking for 4 or 5 people.

Season the lamb, then sear in a lovely hot frying pan.

Pop the lamb in a large saucepan (stock pan) or high sided roasted tin.

Add roughly (quiet large) chopped carrots, onions, celery, bouquet garni (rosemary, thyme, whatever you want really), 3 or 4 black pepper corns, bay leaves (couple), 2 or 3 whole garlic gloves… add all this to the lamb in the pan/roasting tin.

Now cover/submerge (as best of possible) with chicken stock – cubes (probably 2) will do the trick if you haven’t got homemade.

Whack that in the oven (about 160/180˚C) for 3 to 4 hours – maybe turning occasionally as the stock reduces it reveals the lamb, and you don’t want it to be drying out. You’ll know when it’s done – as you pick the lamb up to turn it will look and feel like it’s about to fall of the bone… yum!

Once you happy it’s cooked – take the lamb out of the stock, pop it in a dish and cover with foil. Allow to cool then refrigerate

Try and do the lamb cooking the day before you eat it or at least a few hours prior to consumption… you need to entirely chill the cooking juices for gravy making. Lamb is an enormously fatty meat, you’ll be surprised with the amount of fat that solidifies on the top of the cooking juices.

Use the solidified fat to roast your potatoes/veg in…

So now for the Gravy…

You’ll probably end up with more juice than you need. So take out as much as you think you will consume (dependant on number of people/amount of lamb)

Bring to the boil in a saucepan, allow for some reduction – then bring back to a good simmer.

I add a teaspoon of cranberry sauce, a teaspoon of English mustard and stir away. I tend to add booze (red wine, Madeira?), I would reduce the booze down in a separate pan before adding it, this successfully burns of the alcohol and really intensifies the flavour of the booze itself – then chuck it in the gravy.

If your gravy looks to thin…

Add a beurre manie – this is the flour and butter part of roux. Stick a heaped table spoon of butter in a bowl (cereal?) and microwave until melted. Add 2 or 3 teaspoons of plain flour to the butter – that’s the beginning of the roux.

Now add half the beurre manie to the gravy and gently whisk in – the flour will take 4 or 5 mins to cook through, then thickening should take place. If it’s still to thin add more beurre manie… until desired gravy thickness is achieved.

To reheat the meat – pop your lamb back in a roasting tin, add about a half inch of water, then cover in foil – whack it in the oven at about 100/120˚C for half an hour (maybe more, might be a little less – you’ll need to check)

I tend to serve it with roast potatoes and roast veg… and some steamed green veg.

Now feast like kings… and queens!