These lamb recipes ain’t half baa’d

PAUL AINSWORTH’S SHEPHERD’S PIE

INGREDIENTS

2 boned and rolled shoulders of lamb (roughly 2.5kg each) 500g smoked streaky bacon diced 3 large onions rough dice 6 large sticks of celery rough dice 7 large carrots rough dice 6 large beef tomatoes 4kg lamb stock 1 head of garlic halved 1 bunch of rosemary 1 bunch of thyme 1 bottle of red wine 2.5kg chopped tomatoes 2 tablespoons of tomato puree 800g well-made mash potato creamy with plenty of butter! Parmesan (36-month aged ideally) Cheddar

METHOD

1. Preheat over to 110˚C. Roast lamb in pan, nice and even golden colour all around. Add in one onion, two carrots and one stick of celery alongside the garlic, rosemary and thyme. Transfer to an oven proof dish and cover with a stock. Wrap in tinfoil nice and tight and cook until tender and soft. It should take about five hours, but can be done overnight. 2. Bring a pan of water up to boil. Cut the core out of the beef tomatoes, cross the bottom. Plunge into boiling water for 10 seconds then into ice water so that you can peel the skin off. 3. Get a wide heavy based pan onto high heat, once hot add tablespoon of vegetable oil, add bacon and roast quite heavy. Once roasted turn heat down to medium, add onions let them cook for a couple of minutes then add in celery and carrot. After two minutes add in tomato puree, let cook for three minutes, always stirring. Then add in red wine half a bottle at a time. Once reduced, add chopped tomatoes, then reduce down by half. 4. Now the meat is cooked, take the lamb shoulders out of the liquor and pass the liquid through a strainer and pour into the pan. 5. Reduce by half until nice and thick and can coat the meat. 6. Meanwhile, peel the tomatoes, deseed them, cut into four, then cut each ‘petal’ into rough dice. Mix into the lamb shoulder mix. 7. Preheat oven to 180˚C. Place the lamb shepherd’s pie mix in an oven proof deep dish, spoon mash on top, rough up edges with fork to create spikes. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes until bubbling and mash starting to colour. Now grate over a generous amount of cheddar (try Davidstow one-year-old) and the aged Parmesan. Place back in oven for a further 15-20 minutes until cheese is nice and crispy.