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Slow-cooked lamb with garlic, anchovies and rosemary
Serves 6-8 Starters and mains
Ingredients
- 1 medium shoulder of lamb (around 2kg)
- 2 sprigs rosemary
- 40g anchovy fillets in oil
- 2 fat garlic cloves
- 3 celery sticks, halved widthways
- 2 carrots, halved lengthways
- 200ml white or red wine vinegar
- 200ml water
For the gravy
- 100ml red wine
- 300-500ml hot water
- 25g butter
- 20g plain or 00 flour
Method
Allow the lamb to come to room temperature; this should take around 30 minutes and will ensure the lamb cooks evenly. Cut away any really tough skin from the top; waxy fat is good so you can leave that. Heat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7.
Pull the leaves off the rosemary and discard the stem. Put the anchovies, garlic and rosemary together on a board and chop together until you have a rough paste. Use a sharp knife to make around 20 incisions in the lamb and push a pinch of the paste into each small cut. Lay the celery and carrots into the centre of a roasting tray to form a trivet for the lamb to sit on; this will keep it out of the water and vinegar in the dish. Rub the lamb all over with salt and place it on top of the vegetables. Pour the vinegar and water into the tray. Wrap the tray tightly in 2 layers of foil and bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Turn the oven down to 170C/325F/Gas 3 and roast for another 3 hours.
After this time, remove the foil (carefully as the steam rushes out) and pull the shoulder bone away slightly. The meat around it should give easily, be tender and about to fall off the bone. If it is not done to your liking replace the foil and put the lamb back into the oven (this can happen if the shoulder is large). Remove the lamb from the roasting tray and set aside on a plate to rest covered in foil and a cloth.
To make the gravy, strain the juices from the cooking pan into a medium saucepan through a fine sieve. Let the juices settle and scoop off the fat from the surface with a ladle and discard.
Add the red wine and hot water to the juices and stir through – how much water you will need to add depends on how much liquid you already have from the lamb juices and how much gravy you want to make.
Thicken the sauce by mixing the butter and flour together in a separate small saucepan over a gentle heat. Whisk a little of this mixture, the roux, into the gravy and cook over a medium heat until thickened. If it doesn’t get thick enough after a few minutes, add a little more roux.
Season to taste and pour into a warm gravy boat or jug. Put the lamb into a warm serving dish with the gravy on the side.
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