It has been a while since I published one of my recipes. Perhaps it is the realisation that I have neglected finishing my recipe book (Fabulous Food for the Famished Student). Perhaps because I have become addicted to peeled Italian plum tomato soup and cannot find an angle to make it seem appetising. Regardless of my reasoning, here for you is the recipe for my Easter Sunday Roast Lamb.
Of course you may consume it any other Sunday you like. The title is not meant to be blasphemous so much as celebratory. Easter is a time of joy and unity. It is also one of the most highly celebrated events on any Catholic’s calendar. A time where one is reminded of sacrifice and the nature of goodness. One is kind to their neighbour on Easter Sunday. It is almost a shame that Easter cannot occur every Sunday.
I designed this dish to emulate the Garden of Eden. Setting the lamb on a (hidden)bed of carrots. I surrounded it by a sea of cannellini beans. Amid them were trees of brocolli with sliced onions from the lamb gravy I made on them to denote fruit. The forbidden fruit lays at the foot one of these trees, partially quartered. I should have thought to include two stalks of thyme as Adam and Eve. Nobody’s perfect.
Ingredients:
-1.5kg lamb shoulder, with the bone taken out; put back in and sewn up with a butcher’s knot. Your local butcher will know what to do.
– 400g cannellini beans, preferably fresh.
– A large bunch of broccoli
– 3 British carrots, peeled and diced.
– one red onion
– Fresh garlic cloves, halved
– Fresh rosemary
For stock:
– one white onion chopped finely (to make lamb stock)
– Some lamb bones with a little meat and fat still attached to them (to make the stock)
– white cooking wine
– 500ml water
– salt and pepper to taste
For overnight glaze:
– Two tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
– one teaspoon dijon mustard
– two garlic cloves, crushed
– juice of half a lemon
– Fresh chopped parsley and oregano
– Salt & Pepper to taste
Method:
Firstly you’ll need to soak your fresh cannellini beans overnight. Then boil them for ten minutes. Drain and set aside.
Next, combine the ingredients for the glaze and mix them together in a bowl. Pour over the lamb shoulder in a dish, cover and leave overnight. Preferably outside of the fridge if you have room.
Next make the lamb stock, fry the onions in a little oil until they are soft. Then add the water; bones and white wine. If you’re impatient, you can combine a tablespoon of cornflour with water and add it to the mix. Bring this to the boil. Cover and leave to simmer for 3 hours. Or two if you’re willing to sacrifice flavour to save time.
Take out the lamb when you’re ready for the grand finale. Stab little holes in it and put one half of garlic and a sprig of rosemary in each crevice.
Place the carrots diagonally in a corner of your baking dish. Lay the marinated, perforated lamb on top of them and cover the rest of the space in the beans. Place your trees of broccoli around as you prefer. Quarter your red onion but don’t slice all the way through. Leave 1mm space for it to unfold beautifully. Pour over your lamb stock.
Cover with tin foil and cook for 1.5 hours at 190 degrees centigrade.
Goes Well With:
Cotswold potatoes roasted in goose fat.
Balsamic asparagus stalks.
Homemade garlic mayonnaise
