Description
This slow roast lamb shoulder literally melts in the mouth. It’s a great recipe to impress, and you can literally put it in the oven and forget about it while it cooks!
The default recipe serves 3-4 people
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 large brown or white onion
- 1 kg / 2.2lb bone-in lamb shoulder
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- few sprigs of fresh rosemary
- 1 bulb of garlic
- 2 tbsp plain/all-purpose flour
- 500ml / 2 cups beef stock
Instructions
- Remove the lamb from the fridge around 1-2 hours before cooking, to allow it to come to room temperature. Preheat the oven to full heat.
- Cut the onion into 8ths and then place in the bottom of a roasting dish. Use a dish that is suitable for using on the hob/stove after removing from the oven.
- Rub the olive oil into the flesh of the lamb and season well with salt and pepper.
- Using a very sharp knife, make some cuts into the lamb through the fat side, going around 2cm into the meat. Stuff each cut with a sliver of garlic (you may need to cut a few cloves into halves or quarters) and a piece of rosemary. Break up the remainder of the unused garlic bulb and toss it in with the onion in the baking tray (no need to peel).
- Place the meat, fat side up, on top of the onion and garlic in the roasting dish. Cover the meat loosely with 2 pieces of foil and then seal it well around the edges of the dish. Place it in the oven and as soon as you do reduce the temperature to 170C/325F.
- Roast for 4 hours for a 2kg / 4.5lb piece or 3.5 hours for a 1kg / 3.3lb piece.
- Remove the lamb from the oven and place it on a chopping board, covered with the foil and tea-towel. Leave to rest for 20-30 minutes.
- Next, make the gravy. Pour out all but 1-2 tbsp of fat from the baking dish. Sprinkle the flour into the baking dish and use a whisk to mix it into the juices at the bottom. Place over medium-high heat and pour in the stock. Let it simmer for around 10 minutes, using the whisk to mix all the delicious sticky mixture from the bottom of the tray into the gravy.
- Finally, use a potato masher to mash in the onion and garlic for full flavour, before straining the gravy through a sieve and into a jug.
Notes
- Thyme can be used instead of rosemary in this recipe
- Vegetable or chicken stock can be used instead of beef
- If you are using a bone-in joint then for 2 people use 7-800g/1.5lb-1.7lb. For 4 people 1.4kg-1.6kg/3lb-3.5lb or for 6 people around 2kg/4.4lb.
- If you are using a boneless joint then you want around 5-600g/1.1lb-1.3lb for 2 people, 800g-1.2kg/1.7lb-2.6lb for 4 people or 1.2kg-1.8kg/2.6lb-4lb for 6 people
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 4 hours
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Roast
- Cuisine: British
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 (1/4 of the default recipe)
- Calories: 800
- Fat: 66g
- Carbohydrates: 9.5g
- Protein: 43g
Keywords: roast dinner, lamb, slow-roast, indulgent, meat, entertaining