Lamb’s shoulder is a particularly good cut of meat for slow-cooking as its relatively high-fat content will keep the meat moist and tender. The meat will literally fall apart when it is ready and all the lovely flavorsome juices will be soaked up by the veg. You can use any veg such as turnip or swede or squash as well as potatoes or carrots. The accompanying gravy can be prepared in minutes just before serving. The following serves 4.
Ingredients:
- 2 lbs Lamb Shoulder
- 8 Sprigs fresh Rosemary
- 1 onion
- 4 large potatoes
- 6 large carrots
- 1 Bulb garlic
- Olive oil to rub on the lamb
- Sea salt
- Ground black pepper
Gravy Ingredients:
- 1 Lamb Stock cube dissolved in 0.1-gallon hot water
- 1 tbs Red wine vinegar
- 1 bs Balsamic vinegar
- A small handful of fresh mint leaves, chopped
To cook the lamb and veg:
Peel and cut the potatoes, carrots, onions and/or another veg into rough chunks. Add to the crockpot with about a 0.5-inch depth of water.
Place 4 rosemary sprigs over the veg and add all the garlic cloves, except for 4 or 5. Leave the skin on the garlic cloves as you can take them out at the end to make the gravy.
Prepare the lamb by making some diagonal slashes across the fatty side of the meat about 1 inch apart. Rub olive oil on all sides of the lamb. Freshly grind sea salt and black pepper over the lamb and rub in. Peel and slice the remaining 4 or 5 garlic cloves and tuck garlic into the slashes.
Place lamb, fatty side up, on top of the veg. Arrange remaining rosemary sprigs across the top of the lamb.
Put the lid on the pot and switch to low for 8-10 hours. The lamb will be cooked when you can easily use a fork to pull the meat apart.
When the lamb is cooked to your liking take out of the pot, cover in tin foil and a tea-towel and allow to rest while you prepare the veg and gravy.
To make the gravy:
Whilst the lamb is resting, take out the garlic cloves from the pot. Squeeze the garlic from their skins into a saucepan. Pour any juices from the crockpot into a saucepan. Add the lamb stock cube dissolved in boiling water, the balsamic and red wine vinegar to the saucepan and stir. Put on a low heat until boiling then turn off the heat. Add the chopped mint leaves just before serving.
The veg left in the pot can be roughly crushed and a knob of butter added with salt and pepper to taste if required. Keep warm by leaving in the pot until ready to serve.
Remove the lamb from the tin foil. It should pull apart easily. Serve with the crushed veg and the gravy.
Enjoy your delicious slow-cooked crockpot lamb.
