How to make spring lamb shoulder with hasselback potatoes and herbed jus

Celebrate St David’s Day in style with this delicious and herby slow cooked dish

Shake up your Sunday roast with a marinade containing anchovies and capers (Daylesford)

Though it may look as though this recipe requires a number of steps, it is actually incredibly easy and provides a fresh approach to the traditional Sunday roast for spring.

Highly rewarding in flavour, it offers a chance to savour the often undervalued flavour of lamb shoulder.

Served alongside some of our most cherished springtime ingredients and with a lighter, herb-infused jus it will undoubtedly be enjoyed by the whole family. The potatoes will be gone in seconds!

Marinade

2 stalks rosemary
3 stalks thyme
handful of parsley stalks (keep the tops for the jus)
3 large, or 4 small cloves of garlic
4 anchovy fillets
1 tsp capers
1⁄2 tsp salt
6 peppercorns
100ml olive oil
2.5kg lamb shoulder joint, bone in

Slow cooking

200ml white wine
1 red onion, quartered
1⁄2 a lemon
2 sprigs rosemary

Roasting

1kg potatoes such as Yukon Gold or Maris Piper
2 large whole bulbs of garlic, halved
4 large large salad onions, quartered
250g asparagus, woody bases removed and sliced in half on an angle
200ml chicken stock
100g cavolo nero

Herbed jus

25g parsley
10g mint
juice of 1⁄2 a lemon
pinch of salt

Prepare the marinade by putting all of the ingredients into a high-speed blender and blitzing until you get a bright green paste. Rub half of the marinade all over the lamb shoulder and leave overnight if you can, keeping the remaining half of the marinade for cooking.

When ready to slow-cook, put the lamb shoulder into a heavy-bottomed saucepan with the white wine, red onion, lemon and 2 rosemary sprigs. Cover with a lid and place into the centre of the oven at 160C to gently cook for 2 hours.

While the lamb is slow-cooking, wash the potatoes and slice thinly to just below the centre before fanning out to make your hasselbacks. Place into a bowl with 1 tbsp of olive oil and a little salt and toss together until evenly coated. Transfer to a roasting tray with the garlic bulbs and salad onions.

Once the lamb is beginning to soften, remove from the pan (reserving the liquid) and place into the roasting tray over the top of the salad onions and arranging the potatoes and garlic around the edge. Smother the remaining marinade onto the top of the lamb and return to the oven at 220C for 20 minutes before turning the temperature down to 200C and cooking for a further 40 minutes. Next, add the asparagus and cavolo nero and continue to roast for a final 15 minutes.

While the lamb is roasting, strain the reserved slow-cooking liquid and pour into a high-speed blender with the mint, parsley, salt and lemon juice and blitz until you get a lovely green jus. Return to the pan ready to heat through just before serving. Remove the roasting tray from the oven when the potatoes are wonderfully golden and the lamb succulent and soft. Place the lamb onto a board to rest while you heat the jus through and place the roast vegetables onto a platter. Using a fork, gently pull the lamb from the bone – if cooked through, it should come away with ease.

Serve warm as a delicious celebration of the season.

Daylesford.com