I made this for a large weekend meal, and it was delicious. It takes a bit of prep the day before, and is a long time cooking. It is not a weeknight event. It was delicious and I would make it again. It helped that I had the main ingredients in the garden, or in the freezer. The recipe comes from Ottolenghi ‘Simple’.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 lemon – grated rind and juice
- 3 cloves of garlic for the marinade
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 1/4 tsp fenugreek
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 15g mint leaves
- 15g coriander leaves
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 boned shoulder of lamb weighing around 1kg
- 1 celeriac (about 400g) cut into 2cm chunks
- 3 carrots (about 300g) cut into 2cm chunks
- 1 head of garlic, separated into unpeeled cloves.
- Salt and pepper
METHOD:
- Put the lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil, 3 cloves of garlic, 2/4 tsp salt, black pepper spices and herbs in a small spice grinder or small blender, and blitz into a paste.
- Put the lamb into a large bowl and stab it at least 20 times. Rub in the spice mixture, wrap in a plastic bag or similar, and refrigerate overnight.
- Start cooking after lunch. Heat the oven to 170C. Put the marinaded lamb into a casserole dish, cover and put it in the oven for an hour.
- Reduce the temperature to 160C, add all of the vegetables including all of the unpeeled garlic cloves. Return to the oven. I found that I needed to add small amounts of water to keep everything moist during cooking, checking every hour or so. I cooked this way for four hours.
- Add another small splash of water, remove the lid and return to the oven for another hour. Prepare anything else you need, such as mashed potatoes, greens, etcetera.
I had a boned shoulder of lamb, but you could use bone-in lamb, and keep the joint in the oven until the meat is falling off the bone.