Bryn Williams' slow-roasted lamb shoulder with boulangère potatoes

Thursday 27 February at 1:03pm

Ahead of St David’s Day this weekend, Welsh chef Bryn Williams makes Phillip and Holly a roast lamb feast!

Slow-roasted lamb shoulder with boulangère potatoes

Serves: 6

Ingredients

For the lamb

1 small shoulder of lamb, about 1.5kg

Salt and pepper

50ml vegetable oil

100g unsalted butter

2 onions, peeled and sliced

Sprig of rosemary, leaves chopped roughly

5 large potatoes, peeled and sliced

1 litre lamb stock

1 garlic bulb

For lamb topping

20g mint (roughly chopped)

20g flat leaf parsley (roughly chopped)

1 garlic clove (finely chopped)

1 large lemon (zest the skin)

Sea salt

2tbs rapeseed oil

6 tbsp treacle

For the salad and dressing

2 gem lettuce

2 sprig of mint

50ml white wine vinegar

1 teaspoon mustard

200ml rapeseed oil

Salt and pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 120˚C/gas mark ½.

For the lamb

Season the lamb shoulder generously with salt and pepper
Heat a heavy-based frying pan over a medium heat, then add the vegetable oil and heat gently. Place the lamb into the pan and slowly colour, turning it, until it’s golden brown all over. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Wipe any left-over oil out of the frying pan with some kitchen paper, and place the pan back on the heat. Add the butter. When that has melted, add the sliced onions and cook them gently for 10–15 minutes, or until nice and golden brown. Add the chopped rosemary, stir well to combine, and then remove the pan from the heat and set aside.

For the boulangère potatoes

Lay some of the sliced potatoes on the bottom of the roasting tin, season them with salt and pepper and then add a layer of the onions. Add a second layer of potatoes and then onions, and then a final layer of potatoes. The height of the potato and onion stack should be about 5 cm.
Now pour the lamb stock over the potatoes. Cut the garlic bulb in half, and place it on top of the potatoes and onion mixture.
Place the cooling rack over the potato and onions, and put the lamb on top
Pop the whole thing into the oven and leave to cook slowly for 3-4 hours, or until the meat is falling off the bone. You will see that all the delicious lamb juices have soaked into the potatoes and that the lamb stock has evaporated leaving the onion and potato mixture sweet and delicious
Whilst the lamb is cooking, prepare the ingredients for the lamb topping. In a bowl mix the chopped fresh herbs with the garlic, salt, lemon zest and oil and put to one side, keeping the treacle separate. Once the lamb is cooked, brush with the treacle and then sprinkle over the chopped fresh herb mixture.
For the salad dressing, simply mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and then combine with the salad leaves and mix again, ready to serve
To serve, shred the lamb off the bone, and serve with the potatoes and salad. Don’t forget to share the garlic!