Lamb shoulder is a cheaper cut than the leg but cooked low and slow it gives great flavour and a lovely melting texture to the meat. The Persillade is generally made with parsley but the seasonal wild garlic goes very well with the lamb. If you can’t get wild garlic where you are substitute 3 cloves of crushed garlic and 20g Parsley.
This recipe serves 4
For the Lamb:
- 1.5kg Lamb Shoulder on the bone
- 4 sprigs Rosemary picked and chopped
- 4 sprigs Thyme picked and chopped
- 1 Ts Fennel seeds
- 1 Ts ground Cumin
- 1 Lemon zested
- 2 Tbs Olive oil
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Method
- Combine all the ingredients except the lamb, this will be the marinade for the shoulder.
- Score the skin of the lamb with a sharp knife making 1 cm incisions in a crisscross pattern 3 cm apart. Rub the marinade into the lamb and the incisions. Season all over with salt and pepper. Marinade at room temperature for 1 hour.
- Heat the oven to 230c and put the lamb on a roasting tray. Roast on this high heat for 20mins to give a nice brown colour.
- Turn down the heat to 150c and give the lamb a baste. At this put you can add some root vegetables to the tray and put the lamb on top. Add a splash of water to the tray to stop the lamb juices burning, cover loosely with tin foil and return to the oven.
- Slow cook it for 4 hours basting every 30mins with the roasting juices. Allow to rest for 30mins before serving.
- A simple gravy can be made from the juices in the roasting tray.
For the Persillade
- 30g chopped flat leaf parsley
- 20g chopped wild garlic
- 1 small shallot finely chopped
- ½ Lemon zested
- Squeeze of lemon juice
- 2Tbs olive oil
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Method
- Add all the ingredients to a pestle and mortar and combine. Or lightly pulse in a food processor.
