The Times - UK (2022-04-09)

the times Saturday April 9 2022

12 Food + Drink

Serves 4

Cooking time: 2-2¼ hours

Ingredients

Oil, for frying

600g diced lamb, eg neck or leg

1 large onion, sliced

2 large carrots, roughly chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced

1 tbsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp coriander seeds

½ tbsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground turmeric

Seeds from 5 cardamom pods

A pinch of saffron

400g tin chopped tomatoes

400g tin chickpeas, drained

200g dried apricots

750ml chicken or lamb stock

A handful of fresh coriander, chopped

Method

1 Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in an

ovenproof casserole. Season the

meat. Fry in batches until browned.

2 Set aside, then in the same pan

gently fry the onions and carrot until

soft, about 10 min. Add the garlic and

spices and cook for 2 min, stirring

to stop it catching. Meanwhile,

preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4.

3 Add the tomatoes, chickpeas,

apricots and stock. Bring to a simmer,

cover and put in the oven for 1 hour

30 min, or until the meat is tender.

Scatter with chopped coriander and

serve with couscous.

Lamb tagine

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 shoulder or leg of lamb,

about 1.5kg

2 tbsp olive oil

100g unsalted butter,

plus extra for greasing

2 onions, peeled and

finely sliced

5 cloves of garlic, crushed

Sprig of rosemary,

leaves roughly chopped

4 large potatoes,

peeled and sliced

750ml chicken stock

Method

1 Preheat the oven to

150C/gas 2. Season the

lamb with salt and pepper.

2 Heat the oil in a

heavy-based frying pan,

add the lamb and cook

until golden brown all

over. Set aside.

3 Add the butter to the

pan. Cook the onions and

garlic gently for 30 min,

stirring occasionally, until

golden brown. Add the

rosemary, stir well and

remove from the heat.

4 Lay some of the potato

slices on the bottom of

a buttered heavy-duty

roasting tin. Season well,

then add half the onion

mixture. Add a second

layer of potatoes, more

onions and a final layer

of potatoes.

5 Pour over the chicken

stock until it just covers

the top layer. Place in the

oven and set the lamb

directly over it on an

oven rack so the juices

drip into the potatoes.

6 Cook for about 4 hours

(less for a leg, which is

smaller), until the meat is

soft and collapsed and

the potatoes are cooked

through.

Lamb with boulangère potatoes

5

hours

Food editor Tony Turnbull shares his foolproof guide to

buying and cooking lamb perfectly, plus how to serve it

Slow roast or fast

blast? How to cook

your Easter lamb

Simon Hopkinson does it in his celebrated

book Roast Chicken and Other Stories,

where he pairs the meat with garlic, rose-

mary and, perhaps counterintuitively,

anchovy fillets, which melt down and give

a lovely salty depth of flavour. Or you can

rub the lamb with a mix of ground cumin,

coriander, turmeric, grated ginger and

olive oil for a Middle Eastern take. Leave

it to marinate overnight and cook in

your usual way.

Apricots and almonds go very well

with lamb. Peter Gordon has a lovely

recipe in which he roasts a large leg of

lamb at 180C/gas 4 with fennel, carrots,

garlic, rosemary and thyme (plus

a large glass of water to stop

the garlic burning). Then,

after 90 minutes, he

tucks a mix of halved

dried apricots, whole

almonds and walnut

pieces under the

lamb and gives it

another 20 minutes

or so.

If you insist that

your lamb has to

be new season, the

rule is to serve it pink

and as simply as possible so

as not to mask its delicate

flavour. Simply anoint it with

oil, salt and pepper, and sear

prime cuts such as loins,

saddles and racks quickly at

high heat to give them a bit

of colour, then finish them off

in the oven.

F

or traditionalists, there will be

no debate about what to serve

for lunch on Sunday week: it

has to be lamb, which goes

with Easter like turkey goes

with Christmas. Most people

think of this as the time to

enjoy the first of the new season lamb, and

rosy pink lamb chops are a thing of great

joy, but in truth spring lamb isn’t yet at its

best. The meat may be tender, but it often

lacks depth, and the lambs need a few

months’ grazing on fresh, herby grass in

the Welsh hills or on the salt marshes of

Kent to develop a fuller flavour. June is

when they are at their peak.

For my money, you are better off with

an animal with a bit more age. The meat

will be darker, but more flavoursome. It

will have had time to put on a layer of

flavour-boosting fat. I tend to keep things

simple and roast a shoulder slowly on a bed

of unpeeled vegetables — halved onions

and heads of garlic, perhaps carrots and

fennel — with a glass or two of white wine

so that it creates its own delicious gravy.

Cook it for about four and a half to five

hours at 150C/gas 2.

It really is the kind of roast you can stick

in the oven and forget about, which will

give you all the more time to worry about

whether to accompany it with mint sauce

or redcurrant jelly. Personally, I think the

solution is to use both. I always stir a

spoonful or two of jelly into my gravy to

give it a little sweetness, and make a simple

mint sauce to serve at the table. Just dis-

solve a little sugar in red or white wine

vinegar (I use a ratio of about 1 teaspoon of

sugar to 3 tablespoons of vinegar) and add

lots of finely chopped mint leaves. It

couldn’t be easier, and is far better at cut-

ting through lamb’s natural fattiness than

commercial mint sauce, which tends to be

too sweet. Alternatively, an Italian salsa

verde will do the same job. Blend together

bunches of flat-leaf parsley, mint

and marjoram with a couple of

anchovy fillets, a tablespoon

of capers, half a garlic clove,

a tablespoon of Dijon mus-

tard and enough olive oil to

make a loose sauce.

If I’ve barbecued the lamb

(not that I’m expecting miracles

next weekend), I often serve

it with couscous and a

sauce of whipped feta.

Simply put a block of

feta in a blender with

a tablespoon of olive

oil and a couple

of tablespoons of

water and blitz

until it has the

consistency of

double cream.

You can add a

pinch of sugar

if you find it

too tart.

If you want to be

a little more adven-

turous there are

plenty of ways to

jazz up a roast leg or

shoulder. One of my

favourites is the way

coriander,turmeric, gra

olive oil for a MiddleEa

it to marinate overnig

your usual way.

Apricots and almon

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Tony Turnbull

Rack of lamb

Eat!

Perfect egg

recipes

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