Twice cooked lamb forequarter roast
Serves: 6 | Prep Time: 20mins | Cook time: 10.5 hrs
Ideally cook the day before: Slow cooker LOW 7.5 hrs, slow cooker HIGH 4.5 hrs, oven cooked 3hrs | Cook time before serving next day: slow cooker 2.5hrs, oven cooked 90mins
Ingredients:
1 - 2 Tasman’s lamb forequarter roast, around 1.5 – 2 kg (bones left in)
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
½ tbsp fennel seeds
6 cloves garlic
sea salt and black pepper to taste
6 shallots, peeled and diced finely
2 sprigs rosemary
6 sage leaves
1 tbsp coriander seeds
½ tbsp ground cinnamon
1½ cups dry white wine (use water if you don’t have any)
¼ cup red wine vinegar
250ml chicken stock
Method:
- If cooking in the oven, preheat the oven to 160°C. Peel the garlic cloves, leaving them whole still. Using the point of a sharpened knife, make small incisions in the meat of the lamb about 2cm deep, then poke a garlic clove into each hole. Push them down into the meat and under the skin so they stay put.
- Rub the lamb with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Heat a heavy-based frypan over a medium heat and brown the shoulder on all sides (as far as practicable – the bones might get in the way).
- Place the shoulder in a crockpot of a slow cooker, or in a large casserole pot.
- Add the shallots to the frying pan and sauté for 1 minute. Pour in the white wine so that it bubbles furiously for half a minute, then add the red wine vinegar and chicken stock. Bring to a gentle simmer, scraping up all the bits off the bottom of the pan. Pour over the lamb.
- Add rosemary leaves, sage leaves, cinnamon, fennel seeds and a pinch of salt to the sauce and cover tightly.
- If using a slow cooker: Cook for 4 – 5 hours on HIGH, or 6 – 8 hours on LOW. If using a casserole oven dish: cook for 3 hours.
- Remove crockpot from cooker and allow lamb to cool, keeping the lamb in the pot. When cooled to room temperature, place in fridge overnight. The fat will solidify.
- The next day, remove fat from the surface, and add ½ cup chicken stock if the liquid has completely dried up. Re-heat in slow-cooker on LOW for 2½ hours. If using casserole dish, keep covered and reheat in oven at 160°C for 90 minutes.
- Serve the lamb on a platter with the juices and poured over the top with a side of seasonal vegetables. The Lamb will fall apart as it is carved. Enjoy.
