Roast Lamb - I just love it! It's not massively popular in Malta (the local "haruf" available only for a very short time at the start of spring, the rest all imported), however it is an institution both in Australia and where i'm living now, UK (Sussex). All of England, 50% of the total land in fact is used for pasture here in the UK, meaning that by far, the sheep and cow industry is the one that takes up the most space here. I've seen sheep in the most unlikely places, right on top of Wales' tallest mountain, down the road from our house, randomly walking down the road with some ponies through country lanes. This land is full of sheep!
Went to our local butcher, who happens to be a fantastic butcher who sells really good quality small stock farmed animals.
The lamb he had that day was some local lamb that had just won a prize at the show. YUM! Bought half a shoulder with the mind to have delicious roast, and then make shepherd's pie with the leftovers. This is the kind of meal that you prepare and kind of just forget about. It's a perfect Saturday night dinner (esp if you've just brunch at lunchtime and are quite hungry!). I like to make it on Saturday, and make a shepherd's pie on the Monday night - most of the hard work is already done! :)
Just like most of my recipes, I always look to the internet and my cookbooks for inspiration. When it comes to shoulder, low and slow is most definitely the way to go!! (Ah! the rhyming! it burns!) It's super simple and you will have fantastically flavoured, tender and juicy all the way through :) This recipe is a mix of one of Jamie Oliver's, Mary Berry's, James Martin and a few other tidbits around the web. To be fair, they are all very similar recipes so just go with what you feel is best :)
This feeds 4, or 2 plus leftovers for another meal. For a larger piece of meat, you will need a longer cooking time, maybe up to around 4 hours? But I've also cooked whole shoulder for 2.5 hours like this and had it almost fork tender! :)
