slow roasted lamb salad with semi dried tomatoes, feta, rocket, pine nuts, kumera chips & balsamic dressing 

Part 1 – the slow cooked lamb

Ingredients

1 Leg or shoulder of lamb ***

2 carrots

2 celery stalks

2 onions

1 ltr veg stock

100ml white wine

*** For best results at home, if you are just feeding a family or group of friends, I would recommend a whole shoulder for this recipe, but legs taste just as good in my opinion and are better if you are feeding a larger group of  people.  Price-wise, it is practically the same, because although the per kilo price of shoulders is generally less, that is because the actual yield of meat from the leg is higher (proportionally there is more bone in the shoulder).

What you will see in the video is what we use most days in the restaurant: a large (approx 3kg) lamb leg cut into 2 inch chops. (“Chops” is butcher terminology for any cut which goes accross the bone.)  There are two reasons we use chops: it speeds the process slightly, and most days at the restaurant we have about a 4 hour maximum prep time.  The main reason though, is that our pizza oven has a very short opening, and our roasting dishes can’t be more than about 10cm in height.  In a normal domestic oven, you will be able to fit a whole leg or shoulder, and there is a  chart below the video showing you how to adjust the cooking times.

If you want to do it exactly the same as we do though, go the The Meating Place and ask for a leg of lamb the same as red grapevine.  The butchers there will know what to do, because we get one pretty much every day.

Method

The actual cooking method we are going to use is called braising (cooking at a low heat in a covered vessel with a small amount of liquid).  For some reason though, perhaps because of it’s highly common usage in chinese cuisine, the word ‘braising’ has fallen out of fashion in modern australian & continental food styles – so we call it ‘slow roasting’ or ‘slow cooking instead’.  It is much the same though, and can be done like this.

1.  Arrange a large roasting tin or ovenproof dish with some chopped carrot, onion, & celery pieces (don’t worry too much about peeling them, as they are only there to infuse some flavour to the lamb, and will be discarded later)

2.  In a hot frying pan with a small amount of oil, lightly brown your lamb on both sides (1-2 mins each side if using chops; a little longer if you are using a whole joint.

3.  When finished, place your lamb on top of the vegetables in the dish.  Deglaze your pan with the white wine and pour this on top of the lamb.  Then add enough vegetable stock so that the liquid level goes up 1/3 to 1/2 of the lamb.  It needs to be sitting in the liquid, but not covered.

4. Cover the lamb tightly with two pieces of aluminium foil.  It is VERY IMPORTANT that it is tightly covered with no holes.  The slow cooking will only work if there is little to no moisture loss at all.  As the liquid comes to the boil, it will turn to steam, but then condense on the inside of the foil and go back to liquid again.  It is this cycle  that creates the combination of boiling, steaming & roasting which breaks the meat down, and makes it so flavoursome & tender.  If steam is allowed to escape, then the meat very quickly dries up and you are left with lamb jerky.  Your dogs will love you for it, but it’ll be a dissapointing waste of time for everybody else!!

5.  Cook it in a low to moderate oven for as long as you have to spare (see the chart below the video)

In this video: Peter Ireland, sous chef at Red Grapevine Restaurant & Bar prepares slow roasted lamb.

Rough guide for cooking times (depends greatly on size of joint and type of oven)

6.  Once it’s out of the oven, let it cool for a few minutes and then take the cover off (be carefull of escaping steam).  With a pair of tongs, you should be able to pull meat of the bone very easily.  If you can’t, cover it again (fresh aluminium foil is best), and give it some more time in the oven.  If it’s ready, then let it cool for about 30 minutes, and then shred it with tongs or clean fingers, discarding the bits you don’t want as you go.  The meat be very tender & a consistently deep pinkish brown right through.

In this video: Peter Ireland

Any questions or comments on this recipe please feel free to do so by clicking here.

Part II (coming soon) will demonstrate how to make the rest of the salad, but there a many other ways you can use this lamb, the possiblities are endless. We got some of the inspiration from this great recipe byNigella Lawson, which Natalie used to cook for us at home long before we had slow cooked lamb on the restaurant menu. One of the things we loved about it was starting first thing in the morning, and cooking it all day. By dinner time, your whole house smells of lamb!!

Good Luck!