Slow cooked lamb with hot mint and caper sauce, squash mash and Parmesan turnip tops
Servings:
Serves 4 to 6 people
Calories per serving:
1225
Ready in:
4 hours 30 minutes
Prep. time:
20 minutes
Cook time:
4 hours 10 minutes
Difficulty:
Recipe author:
Chef
First published:
10th March 2013
I saw this recipe on Jamie Oliver's At Home series and thought to myself: we'll have this on Saturday night!! So here is what I remember of the program.
It uses shoulder of lamb, which, because of the time spent cooking at a very low heat, will be tender and just fall off the bone when the dish is done.
Cooking does not get much simpler (and tastier) than this!
We have a large selection of slow roast recipes that are similar to this one.
With a sharp knife, score the skin of the joint every 2.5 cm (1"). Cut about halfway through the fat.
Using plenty of salt and pepper, season the lamb on both sides, ensuring you get plenty into the slashes you have made.
Smash the garlic bulb to separate all of the cloves and place half of them, unpeeled, in the base of a suitable sized roasting tray.
Distribute most of the rosemary stems evenly into the base of the tray.
Sit the meat, skin-side upwards, into the roasting tray and place the remaining garliccloves on the top of the skin, together with the remaining rosemary stems.
Drizzle 3 or 4 tablespoons of oliveoil over the skin of the lamb.
Cover with 2 layers of tin-foil and fold the edges over the edge of the roasting tin to ensure a good seal.
Check that the oven has reached its highest temperature and place the joint in the oven on the top shelf and immediately turn the oven down to 160° C (325° F - gas 3)
Leave to roast slowly for 4 hours.
After 4 hours, remove the lamb, together with the garlic, and put the meat on a preheated plate. Cover loosely with a piece of foil and leave to rest for a while before carving and serving with the sauce.
To make the hot mint and caper sauce
Discard most of the rosemary and any excess oil, leaving just the lovely caramelised juices from the roasting.
Heat the roasting tray on the hob and add a tablespoon of plain flour and stir well to soak up all of the lovely juices.
Roughly chop the mint leaves and the capers and add to the roasting tray.
Squeeze a few of the roasted garlic cloves into the gravy.
Add the chickenstock to the tray, stirring well to thicken, but don't cook it for ages.
Add a final splash of sherryvinegar to the gravy, stir and serve.
Serving suggestions
Serve hot with squash mash and Parmesan turnip tops.
Chef's note
If you are using a smaller joint then you can reduce the cooking time; a small (800g) joint would only need half the cooking time. However, it wont hurt to cook it longer as it will just do a better job of breaking down the collagen and sinews. It's also worth noting that Lamb is safe to eat rare.
Don't be put off a recipe that calls for a leg of lamb because of the high cost. This recipe can be adjusted for half a leg of lamb and you buy that (frozen) for just £6.00! (March 2013).
See also
A comprehensive guide to roast meat cooking times - give the time you want to carve your roast and we'll give you a timed step by step roasting guide
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Remove the lamb from the smoker when internal temperature reaches 90° – 95°C. For pulled lamb you would want to aim for an internal temperature of between 90° – 95°C. Take the lamb shoulder off the grill at 80°C if you intend to serve the lamb sliced.
Slow-cooking lamb requires patience. While cooking, resist the urge to keep checking on the lamb and refrain from opening the oven or slow cooker. Opening the lid or foil too often will lower the temperature and extend the cooking time, making the meat less juicy and tender.
However, if you leave lamb in the slow cooker for too long it will become stringy and dry. Although it's still edible, it won't have the same tender juiciness that you want from slow-cooked lamb.
Cuts of lamb that are popular for slow cooking include the shoulder, leg, forequarter, shanks, neck chops, lamb ribs, and some sausages. These cuts are usually tougher because they have lots of connective tissue and fats, but this makes them perfect for slow and low methods of cooking.
Should you sear lamb before slow cooking? To maximize the flavor of your lamb shoulder roast, you'll definitely want to give it a good sear before braising. It'll take about a half hour over medium-high heat for the meat to turn deep golden brown on all sides, essentially caramelizing while sealing in the juices.
Slow cooking in liquid transforms tougher cuts of lamb into fork-tender meat. Neck, shoulder and belly, either diced or as whole joints, are the best cuts for slow cooking and need to be cooked for at least 2 hrs at 150°C to soften the meat.
Baking soda / bi-carb and cornflour/cornstarch are the secret ingredients that tenderise the lamb meat. It's a technique called “velveting” that is used by Chinese restaurants, and it's the reason why the meat in your favourite Chinese dishes are always so soft.
If your crock pot roast is tough, it is possible you didn't use a boneless chuck roast, in which cases some cuts of meat will never become fall-apart tender OR more likely, you did not cook your beef long enough. If your pot roast seems tough, cook on!
Lamb leg is lean, so to slow cook it's best to partially submerge in a flavoured liquid which keeps the flesh moist plus infuses with flavour. I'm using garlic and rosemary in this recipe – classic lamb flavours!
Any meat, the slower you cook it the more tender it will be. If it's not tender, it might be overcooked until dry. There is not much you can do except to cut the meat into small pieces/mince and use it in a pot pie or something similar.
The lamb in the slow-cooker was juicier than that from the oven, but lacked the oven lamb's exterior crispy bits (we love crispy bits). The solution was to take the vegetables and lamb from the slow cooker and run them under the broiler to crisp things up a bit. We'd eat either version again in a heartbeat.
Massage paste into lamb using your hands; gently place into the slow cooker. Cook on Low for 5 hours. An instant-read thermometer inserted near the bone should read 145 degrees F (65 degrees C). Let lamb rest for 15 to 20 minutes before serving.
Whether boneless or bone-in, the perfect leg of lamb should be either oven-roasted until blushing pink on the inside (with an internal temp around 130°F) or roasted long and slow for several hours until the meat is very tender and falls apart to internal temp around 175°F (I often use the slow cooker for that).
Season lamb shoulder with rub of choice (I used Greenwood Barbecue – Tree Bark) Foil wrap once bark has set, around 175f internal, approx 2 hours in. Continue to cook until probe tender, internal temp around 207-210f (97-98c)
To avoid 'the stall'. Most tough cuts of meat that require low and slow cooking will hit a certain temperature, usually somewhere between 160f/71c to 170f/77c and can sit at that temperature for hours. One way to avoid the stall is to wrap the meat in foil. To keep the meat moist.
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