Skip to main content

thought I should cook this sometime

Slow-cooked shoulder of lamb with pumpkin and sprouting broccoli
by Skye gyngell

I am in a bit of a Skye Gyngell phase at the moment and I saw this online and thought if I blogged about it I might cook it.


the recipe


When I was a child we often ate lamb accompanied by roasted pumpkin. It is a lovely combination, both warm and sweet. The lamb is slow cooked here until it's almost falling apart – it is the nicest way I know to eat it.

Ingredients

1 shoulder of British lamb
6 cloves garlic
1 small bunch marjoram
8 anchovies
3 tbsp good-quality red-wine vinegar (such as Volpaia)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 ripe pumpkin
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 dried red chilli
1tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
500g/1lb sprouting broccoli
1 litre/13/4 pints water

Method

Heat the oven to 160C/325F/Gas3. Lay the lamb shoulder on a baking tray. Place the garlic, marjoram and anchovies in a pestle and pound with a mortar until you have a rough paste. Add the vinegar and stir to combine.
Related articles



Rub the wet paste into the lamb, massaging with your fingers. Season with a little salt and plenty of black pepper. Cover with foil and place in the oven to cook for three to four hours, basting occasionally. Uncover for the last half hour.

Next, peel and chop the pumpkin into wedges and place in a bowl. Season with salt, crumble over the chilli and pour over the olive oil. Toss until the pumpkin is coated. Place on a baking tray and roast in the oven for the last 45 minutes of the lamb's cooking time.

Trim the broccoli of any damaged outer leaves (you want to keep as many as possible, though, as they are delicious) and trim the woody ends. Pour the water into a pan and let it come to a rolling boil, drop in the broccoli and cook for two to three minutes. Drain and season.

To serve, the lamb will literally come away with a spoon – it will also have produced a delicious, vinegary, slightly hot, salty sauce. Serve all together, as I have done, or in separate dishes if you prefer.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Crack potatoes courtesy of Ottolenghi. Harissa and confit garlic roast potatoes

Another recipe from Ottolenghi's Simple, another recommendation from Will Saunders.   I know its the middle of summer but who doesn't love a roastie? These little tinkers are so good that they are like crack, class A calories. The clever bit is the addition of semolina and caraway seeds which adds a new level of crunchiness to add to the delicious warm heat of Harissa. Heres the recipe These make a lovely, spicy change from the traditional Sunday roasties. They’re especially good with spiced roast meat. Serves six to eight. 2 large heads garlic, cloves separated and peeled 130g goose or duck fat 4 sprigs fresh rosemary  6 sprigs fresh thyme  2kg maris piper potatoes, peeled and cut into 5cm chunks 40g ground semolina 2 tsp caraway seeds, toasted and lightly crushed 2 tbsp rose harissa Flaky sea salt Heat the oven to 150C/300F/gas mark 2. Put the garlic, fat and herbs in a small ovenproof pan or saucepan for which you have a lid. Cover and roast for 40 minut

Sea Bass on mushroom potatoes with salsa Verde

I felt the overwhelming need to cook something new on Saturday night. I didn't want the tired and tested I wanted to explore new culinary waters. However combined with this desire was an equal and opposing force, driven by being absolutely knackered, that meant it had to be simple too. I returned to one of Jamie's early books, to a recipe that IO had meant to do on countless occasions but never quite got round to. I have done several versions of Sea Bass on a bed of potatoes, some that I have written about on this blog. The one question I would have is about the thickness of the potatoes and the length of time they need to be cooked through ... in my oven I reckon they need about 10 minutes more than the recipe suggests. I would suggest a bit of a trial run if you are going to do it for a dinner party ... however once you have given it a whirl I think this makes for a very easy recipe for a crowd. Here's the recipe. Roasted slashed fillet of sea bass stuffed with herbs, bak

Nigel Slaters deceptively brilliant monkfish

Lisa discovered this recipe in her favourite Nigel book. It is one of those fish, 'but not as we know it Jim' recipes. Not just because Monkfish is the fish that can best impersonate meat but also because of the marinade ingredients that are more often featured with lamb. It's not difficult to do but the flavour is a revelation, which makes it a perfect recipe in my book. This can be cooked on a grill pan or a barbecue. Ingredients 3 bushy sprigs rosemary, leaves finely chopped 4 anchovy fillets 2 large cloves garlic salt and freshly ground black pepper 1 large lemon, juice only 3 tbsp olive oil 800g/1½lb monkfish fillet Method Pull the leaves from the rosemary stalks and chop them finely, then tip them into a bowl large enough to take the fish. Rinse the anchovy fillets and smash them to a rough pulp with the flat edge of your chopping knife. Peel the garlic, crush it flat, then smash it to a purée in the same way. Stir together the herb, anchovy and garlic, adding a grind