This one is easy. Basically we’re going to do this recipe for pork stew except with lamb shoulder instead of pork, a bit of extra potatoes and parsnips, and just a plain set of herbs instead of chili peppers. That’s all you really need to know, but here’s the rest anyway.
Here is what you need. For stage 1:
1. 2-3lb of lamb shoulder roast. The one I bought was tied up, which is convenient. Season the roast with a good bunch of salt and pepper.
2. 1 large onion or two small ones, chopped.
3. 1 or 2 ribs of celery, chopped.
4. 2 or 3 carrots, chopped.
5. Dried rosemary, thyme, and some ground cumin seed, bay leaf.
6. Chicken stock.
7. A lot of red wine. Like a whole bottle.
For stage 2:
8. Another onion or two, chopped.
9. 3 or 4 white potatoes, cut up.
10. 3 or 4 more carrots peeled and cut up.
11. 5 or 6 parsnips, peeled and cut up.
First, put the red wine into a small soup pot and bring it to a simmer to reduce it. Reduce it by about half while you do the rest of the prep.
Heat up your favorite soup pot on medium high and put in some olive oil. Toss in the lamb roast. Brown on all sides. This should take a good 10-20 minutes, plenty of time for you to chop all the aromatics.
Remove the roast. Put the aromatics into the pot with some salt and pepper. Cook this over lower heat for around 10 more minutes until the veggies are soft. Add the dry herb mix, then put the roast back in the pan along with enough stock and red wine to cover its lower half. Throw this in a 250 to 300 degree oven for 1 hour. Turn the roast over, put it back for another hour or until it’s all soft and nice.
When the roast is done, take it out of the pot and cut it up into small pieces. Then strain the braising liquid.
For stage 2, cut the root vegetables up into stew sized pieces along with another batch of onions. Toss this back into the soup pot along with another couple of teaspoons of ground cumin. Let this cook a bit, then add the cut up lamb and the braising liquid. Top this off with a bit more red wine and stock if it seems necessary, but not too much. I used a bit too much.
Put this back in the oven until the vegetables are soft. Then it’s ready.
Pro tip: The best thing is to make this one day ahead and heat it up. This is because all stews are better the next day.
Thanks to “Brucey” in the comments of the previous pork stew post for reminding me to cook the roast whole and then cut it up. That’s a lot nicer.
Thanks for the shout out. And thanks for another good braise. Reminds me of a dish I had in Britagne, A roast leg of lamb with root vegetables. The woman who I was living with insisted she did not know how to cook, and three hours later she pulls a whole leg of lamb out of the oven, perfectly medium rare, vegetables seared golden and glazed in lamb drippings.