Roast Spiced Hedgehog of Pork with Gooseberry sauce

Roasting a hedgehog?  Whatever next!  Oh, don't panic - I've not gone THAT exotic - my "Hedgehog" was a piece of hedgehog cut pork - i.e. hatch marks had been cut across the top surface of the piece of pork topside.

Farmer's Choice (Free Range) Ltd  contacted me again and asked whether I would like to devise a recipe for them to use on their new Facebook page for the Dorset and Bournemouth area (Farmers Choice Bournemouth & Dorset).  Naturally, I said yes please!  After all, the produce from Farmer's Choice is so good, why would anyone in their right mind turn them down?

Perfectly roasted and ready to carve

I, pretty much straight away, knew what I was going to go for.  I had been playing about in an imaginary way, with a recipe for spiced roast pork with a gooseberry sauce.  I'd been hoping that our little gooseberry bush would come up with the goods, but regrettably the birdies got there first.

Ready for the oven

I had also been waiting for a suitable piece of pork to turn up in the supermarket for a reasonable price, but that hadn't happened either.  So immediately I went to the pork joint section of the Farmer's Choice website and my eye was caught by the Pork Topside Hedgehog.  As it turned out, I couldn't have asked for a better cut.  With absolutely no waste and as lean as they come, this joint was perfect for everyone in the family and with careful but easy roasting, resulted in a super tender and flavoursome roast which wasn't dry at all.

My order, in the end, became the pork, some gooseberries, a bulb of fennel (also for the sauce) and a wild card entry of a bag of game meat for a game pie which I haven't made yet.  That's what happens when you give me the pick of a site full of produce, you see.  Personally, I think I was very restrained and I'm sure there are many who would have asked for a whole lot more.

The pork recipe was really incredibly simple.  I just wanted something to flavour the outside of the meat with and give it a lovely colour, rather than something to marinate the joint in for hours and provide a more overall kind of flavour input.

As such, the oil-based rub that I came up with - of olive oil, thyme, sweet smoked paprika, garlic, lemon juice and ye olde salt and pepper - was just perfect.  It was able to sink easily into the cut marks across the top of the pork and gave a beautiful colour once roasted.  The flavour was subtle but very much there, depending on how much of the outside of the pork you had on your fork.  Subtlety, folks, I'm all about the subtlety (and poetry, looking at that last sentence).  Well, where roast pork is concerned, anyway.

The roasting was as easy as falling off a log (and I've fallen off a few in my younger days, so I know how easy that is).  For a 1155g piece, I gave it one and a half hours at 180degC (350degF/Gas 4), then gave it a baste and checked the internal temperature was in the range of 77degC - 80degC (meat thermometer - SO useful!) and as such was likely to be done, but still fairly firm.  I then covered the roasting dish with a good layer of aluminium foil and put it back at the much reduced temperature of 130degC for another hour.  Once the hour was up, the whole package was rested for 20 minutes in a warm (but not hot) place.  The meat wasn't fall-apart tender, but I don't much like that in a roast pork joint.  It held together, but you could easily cut it with just a fork.  It was perfect.

You little beauties!

The gooseberry sauce was just wonderful.  The sharpness of the gooseberries cut through the richness of the pork and refreshed the palate, ending on a soft note of fennel which left you ready for the next bite.  The sauce is a little more time-consuming to make, but if you tackle it ahead of time (which I recommend, to give it time to cool) it really doesn't impinge on your day much at all.

The two recipes are really so simple that I don't even have any COOK'S TIPS for you, other than to recommend you keep hold of the fluffy tops and offcuts of your fennel to include in soup or stock, for which they are invaluable.

The finished gooseberry sauce, hiding its zing behind a benign appearance

Gooseberries and pork.  Mmmnnnn, our new favourite thing.  In fact, my hubby was so taken with the combination, he remarked that he hadn't ever had a better piece of roast pork in all his forty-mumble years.  Now that's quite a compliment.

ROAST SPICED HEDGEHOG OF PORK with GOOSEBERRY SAUCE   (Serves 4-5)

Ingredients :

For the gooseberry sauce :
1 tsp yellow mustard seeds
1 tbsp olive oil
1 bulb of fennel, sliced finely and tops discarded
1 large banana shallot (or equivalent), diced finely
small pinch of salt
quarter of a tsp dried thyme
quarter of a tsp finely ground black pepper
quarter of a tsp vegetable stock powder
1 tbsp & 50ml water
125g dessert gooseberries, tops and tails removed
25g granulated sugar.

For the pork :
1kg or thereabouts topside of pork, mine was hedgehog cut
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sweet smoked paprika
1 tsp dried thyme
1 clove of garlic, grated
2 tsp lemon juice
pinch of sea salt
half a tsp freshly ground black pepper.

Method :

1.  Begin, ahead of time, by making the gooseberry sauce.  Heat a small pan and once hot, add the mustard seeds to toast.  Once they start to pop, decant into a small bowl and reserve.

2.  Heat the olive oil and add the fennel and shallot, plus the sea salt.  Cook gently until the shallot is transparent and the fennel has begun to soften.

2.  Add the pepper, dried thyme, vegetable stock and water.  Bring to a simmer and cook until the fennel is tender.

3.  Taking a stick blender, carefully blend until thoroughly combined, but still retaining texture.  Decant into a bowl and reserve.  Replace the pan onto the heat.

4.  Add the gooseberries directly to the pan and add a tablespoonful of water.  Cover the pan and allow the gooseberries to heat through, giving the pan a little shake every now and then, to prevent them from sticking.  This should only take around 5 minutes if the gooseberries are ripe.

5.  Once the berries are softened and their juice is beginning to escape, add the fennel mixture and mustard seeds and stir to combine.

6.  Add the sugar and remaining 50ml of water.  Stir well, then bring to a simmer and cook until the sauce has reduced to a loose jammy consistency.  Taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary, likewise if you think the sauce needs more sugar, correct that too.  Be cautious with the sugar, as you want the sauce to stay tart and not become jam-like.

7.  Once you are happy with the flavour and consistency, decant into a bowl and allow to cool.

8.  Remove the pork from the fridge a good half hour ahead of time.

9.  Place into a roasting tin and mix the seasoning ingredients (oil, paprika, thyme, garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper) together.

10.  Spoon the seasoning mix over the top of the pork and rub into all the cracks and crevices.

11.  Put into a pre-heated oven at 180degC/350degF/Gas 4 for an hour and a half.

12.  Remove the pork from the oven and baste it with the juices, then cover with tinfoil and return to the oven.

13.  Turn the oven down to 130degC/250degF/Gas 2 and cook for another hour.

14.  Remove the pork from the oven and baste it again, then replace the tinfoil and leave it in a warm place to rest for 30 minutes, before carving.

Printable version

Navarin of lamb - at long last!

Way, way back in the olden days (also known as "when I had horses"), I didn't have a lot of time for cooking but did have a great relationship with my slow cooker.  I would prepare the ingredients the night before, then throw them all into my little slow cooker, turn it on and leave it to chuckle all day while I was at work - much to the annoyance of my dogs, I dare say.  Coming home to a ready to eat meal, usually around 9pm and once I'd walked the dogs and put the horses to bed, was just such luxury.

One of my absolute favourite meals cooked this way was Navarin of Lamb.  However, not the authentic kind of Navarin of Lamb, but a Colman's Casserole Mix - yes, one of those from a sachet, just add water, pour over ingredients and cook.  I would whip up some mashed potato and cook some frozen runner beans and sit down to a fantastically comforting hot dinner.  Just perfect.

Then there came a bit of a hiatus in my lamb cooking as I swapped from horses and one person cooking, to babies and two persons (and a baby!) cooking.  Over the course of this period, eating lamb was a once in a blue moon experience owing to the price - we didn't have a lot of cash at the time.  Well, babies cost more than horses to run y'know.  Who'd have thought it!  So I lost touch with my favourite Navarin of Lamb and in the meantime, sadly Colman's decided to discontinue production of the casserole mix.  I never forgot that particular dish though - and would often hope that I'd be able to re-create it one day.

Over the years, various cuts of lamb came (largely due to special offers and money off counters) and were devoured.  However, none of them were really suitable for a voyage back in time to the lovely Navarin of the past.

I found recipes that seemed as though they would get close to how the casserole mix tasted, but there was always something missing.  I'd think about the recipe and, over the years, had pretty much got the recipe in mind.  All that I needed was the right cut of lamb - for the right price.

Then came Farmer's Choice (Free Range) Limited and as we got to know one another through working together over various recipes, I plucked up the courage to ask for the correct cut of lamb for my Navarin - the fillet (see here for details).  Lo and behold, two perfect fillets arrived for me to wreak creative havoc with.  I was in quiet transports of anticipation at finally being able to (fingers crossed) get back to the halcyon days of satisfyingly lamby deliciousness.

Now, if you look at various recipes and photographs of Navarin of Lamb on t'internet, you will see different cuts of meat, some bone in, some bone out, but largely all in a broth type of liquid, accompanied by spring vegetables of different shapes and sizes.  Yes, I am sure that is a perfectly authentic Navarin of Lamb, but the one I was aiming for was nothing like this.  (As is often the way with sachet casserole mixes).  I make no apology for this, because I was on the trail of a food memory, not authenticity.

My Navarin of Lamb was in a fairly thick sauce, that was orangey red in colour, contained flecks of herbs and tasted very lamby.  Nothing like these Navarins looked.  So I had to back-engineer the flavour that was in my memory.

I will admit that I included one ingredient that wasn't part of my memorised recipe, but was included in most up to date recipes - and that was beans.  Because I was aiming for a real comfort food vibe, I went for butter beans.  Is there anything nicer than butter beans for delivering that comforting substance in a casserole?  I don't think so.

I also wanted the flecks of herbage, but without being inundated with tasty greenness and as most recipes recommended the use of a bouquet garni, it made sense to follow along.  However, I also used some fresh parsley (love parsley) to give that "herbs in here" feel.

The flour in the recipe gave the sauce the opaqueness of the original casserole mix, while the tomato puree gave it the colour.  The real stroke of genius, that made the flavour just right, is the inclusion of the whole shallots.  Over the course of the cooking period, the small shallots just melt into the sauce whereas the larger ones stay around for a supporting role to the lamb once on the plate.

The long slow cook (even though it wasn't THAT long or slow) was perfect for this cut of lamb as it enabled the marbling through the meat to render down, adding its perfect lamb flavour to the sauce.  The meat was as tender as butter and the flavour was sublime.  All those years of virtual recipe development carried out in my head were worth every minute.  It was even better than I'd hoped and so very close to the original flavour that I'd held in my memory for all those years.  Satisfied?  I should say so!

I don't even have any cook's tips for you.  The recipe is so simple, it is difficult to imagine how it could go wrong for anyone, so long as you follow each instruction and include all the ingredients listed.

Even if you've experienced the authentic Navarin of Lamb, do give this one a go.  Comfort food at its best - and then some.

NAVARIN OF LAMB    (serves 2)

Ingredients :

2 tbsp olive oil
300g lamb fillet (neck fillet is perfect), cut into centimetre thick medallions
1 onion, chopped
2 large cloves of garlic, sliced finely
8-10 small shallots, peeled
15g salted butter
20g plain flour
1 tbsp tomato puree
pinch sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
600ml strong low salt lamb stock (Essential Cuisine lamb stock is perfect for this)
2 bouquet garni
400g tin of butter beans
1 tbsp finely chopped parsley.

Method :

1.  Heat the oil in a frying pan until very hot.  Gently add the lamb pieces and leave them where they fall, to gain a golden crust.  Once the crust has formed, turn them onto their other side and cook for another 3-4 minutes.  Remove to a casserole dish.

2.  Reduce the heat under the pan to moderate and add the onions, garlic and shallots along with a pinch of sea salt.  Cook until the onion (not the shallots) is transparent and softened - around 8-10 minutes.

3.  Add the butter and, once melted, the flour and tomato puree.  Stir to combine and cook gently for 2-3 minutes, taking care not to let it burn.

4.  Add one half of the stock and stir well to combine with the flour mixture without forming lumps.  Add the other half of the stock mixture and stir until a smooth, thickened sauce has formed.  You may need a little more stock or a little less, depending on your flour.

5.  Taste the sauce for seasoning and add more salt if required, plus a good helping of pepper, to taste.

6.  Stir in the two bouquet garni plus the drained butter beans and decant the sauce into the casserole dish.

7.  Stir to combine with the lamb, then add the lid and bake in a pre-heated oven at 160degC/325degF/Gas 3 for two and a half hours.  Check the casserole contents half way through, to make sure the liquid level is still good.  You can take this opportunity to give the contents a bit of a stir, making sure nothing is sticking to the bottom of the casserole.

8.  Once the cooking time is up, remove the casserole dish from the oven and add all but a pinch of the chopped parsley.  Stir through and taste for seasoning, adding a little more if necessary.

Serve with the remaining parsley sprinkled over, with mashed potatoes, runner beans and carrots.

Printable version

Minty aromatic pulled lamb pittas

As with the Stellar Slow Cooked Lamb Shanks, the gorgeous (huge!) rolled and boned piece of lamb shoulder came (delivered by courier, still frozen) from Farmer's Choice Free Range Ltd., for me to "play with" and develop a recipe for them to feature on their website.

I spent a week or so thinking about what to do with it.  Yes, I could have just roasted it and had the biggest slap up roast lamb dinner of all time - and it would have been utterly memorable - but you know me, things like that just seem too easy.  If every blogger does that, then how does it demonstrate what joe public could be enjoying?

I don't believe in "fiddling about" with a gorgeous product just for the sake of it - if it is something different, something a bit out of the ordinary to begin with, then I'll honour that and do the simplest thing available, so as to make the product the star of the show.

36 hours of marination is up - time to cook!

Now in this case, in no way am I implying that this gorgeous lamb shoulder was run of the mill.  I mean, just look at it!  No, it was quite the opposite.  I can honestly say I have never had a rough piece of meat from Farmer's Choice Free Range, they have all been quite special in their own right.  The lamb was no different, no more fatty than you would expect a good quality piece of lamb to be and with great muscle development, which gives you lovely lines of lean meat.  However, it was a simple rolled and boned lamb shoulder.  A normal Sunday roast cut of meat.  So, what to do with it, that makes it a little bit out of the ordinary?

I'm sue you won't be surprised to hear that I tossed probably dozens of ideas out before I finally hit upon "the one".

Just an hour of cooking time left to go - and smelling amazing.

Out in foodie circles, there is much talk of pulled pork - which has translated to the supermarkets and burger restaurants.  Even our local pizza chain is now offering pulled pork on their pizzas.  So, how about pulled lamb?  Let's develop a complimentary marinade or rub for the lamb, then slow roast it to render most of the fat - and pull it.  Oooh yes, now this is sounding good.  Serve the pulled lamb in a wholemeal pitta bread (the wholemeal ones have way more flavour), with a minted yoghurt sauce?  Yup.  Maybe some roast sweet potato chips (fries) alongside and a little salad for freshness.  Well there you have it.  The recipe suddenly almost wrote itself.

Why, oh why, can't blogging use smellivision?

I knew that I wanted to include mint in the marinade, because lamb with mint is just the BEST thing.  As for what spices to include, well I knew about the North African spices - Ras al Hanout, Harissa - but I didn't fancy those too much.  After all, Ras al Hanout has rose petals in it.  Rose and mint?  Maybe in a sweet - not with lamb though.  Harissa can be quite harsh and lamb doesn't need harsh treatment.

So I looked at a lot of lamb recipes just to get my head focused more on what I didn't want, rather than what I did want, to put with the lamb.  Then I went to the spice cupboard and started putting spices together.  I wound up with quite a list, but it smelled fantastic.  Added sea salt and black pepper, that was a given.  Now lamb can be quite fatty - so I wasn't pushed to decide upon how much extra to give the joint, just a little olive oil to cheer along the upper layers.  However, the marinade needed (by this time it was definitely a marinade, not a rub) more liquid.  I didn't have any fruit juice in at the time but I did have two oranges.  Mmmn, orange zest and juice!  Yes, that would work!  Oh and garlic - lamb just has to have garlic.  I did contemplate including a couple of anchovies too, but felt that was probably a bit out there in conjunction with everything else.

Quite incredibly moist, soft and tender lamb.  Just wonderful.

My goodness but what a powerful, aromatic marinade it turned out to be.  Even encased in a freezer bag - with the lamb, obviously - every time you opened the fridge door, the marinade reached out (aromatically, obviously), grabbed you by the nose and slammed your head (in a friendly kind of a way) into the freezer compartment.  In the end, for the good of everyone involved (including the milk, because nobody fancied marinated milk in their tea), I had to put the marinated lamb into a second freezer bag, which just about managed to contain the beast.  Containing the beast was very necessary, because I was taking this marinading seriously and had put everything together some 36 hours before I was due to cook the lamb.  I wanted to give those flavours time to really get to work!

Be generous with the lamb, it is too good to leave in the tin!

Amazingly, considering how the marinade had behaved on the way, when it came to releasing the lamb into the roasting dish, it had really settled down!  Mellowed, even.  You know how lamb can smell really lamby, some times?  Well this smelled really fresh and so yummy.  I didn't want the dish to run dry during its long cooking time, so added a little water.  Into the oven it went, swimming around in its paddling pool of flavour.

After an hour or so, even with having sealed it as far as was possible with silver foil, the smell from the oven was just amazing.  There was no one aroma that was dominant (well, apart from lamb anyway!), it had just all amalgamated into a gorgeous whole.  I checked it half way through - just to make sure it had enough water - and gave it a little baste.

By the end of the cooking time, our mouths were watering.

Pulling the lamb was the simplest thing.  If, like me, you have family members who are a bit fat phobic, it is very easy to pick out any fatty bits en route.  The lamb just fell apart and was so moist and juicy - no dry, miserable pulled lamb here.  Two forks and a large dish and in just a couple of minutes the dish was full and I was surrounded by hopeful (but disappointed) dogs.  I recommend adding a couple of spoonfuls of the cooking liquid to the pulled lamb, so that when it has to wait for you to prepare the breads and serve the side dishes, there is no worry about it drying out - and why not capitalise on all the flavours that are contained in the cooking liquid?

Speaking of the cooking liquid, I have kept what was in the roasting dish as I have some (as yet) vague plans to make a soup with it.  Well, it was too good to throw away!  Just set it aside for the fat to set, then you can pour the stock out from underneath with no difficulty.

Apologies for there being no lamb in this picture ...

I served the lamb with a yoghurt, mint, cucumber & caper sauce drizzled over and some yummy mint jelly under (the vinegary flavours of a standard mint sauce would work too), in the wholemeal pitta bread.  Absolutely divine.

The flavours that the marinade brought to the lamb were in no way overpowering.  I was so happy with that!  The citrus juice had helped to tenderise the meat and even though I was expecting some warmth from the black pepper and cayenne pepper, it was so subtle.  Beautiful.

Everyone loved this recipe and there were murmurs of disappointment when told "no, there's none left".  Of course, I didn't tell them about the other half of the joint that I'd put in the freezer.  *wink*  Let it be a lovely surprise one day!

A fantastically easy recipe, the very next time you lay your hands on a piece of lamb - and I recommend you have a look at the Farmer's Choice website, to see what they've got - give this a go.  You can't possibly regret it.  Even if you don't pull the lamb and just go with a roast dinner, the flavour of the lamb won't disappoint.  However, the combination of the lamb, the sauce, the mint jelly and pitta bread is just perfect.  Go on, give it a go!

MINTY AROMATIC PULLED LAMB PITTAS   (serves 8)

Ingredients :

1kg boned and rolled, lamb shoulder

For the marinade :

1 bunch fresh mint, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely grated
2 oranges, zest and juice
50ml olive oil
1 and a half tsp ground coriander
1 tsp smoked sweet paprika
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp sea salt
half a tsp cayenne pepper
half a tsp ground cumin
half a tsp ground cardamom
half a tsp ground allspice
quarter of a tsp ground cloves

3 tbsp plain yoghurt (Greek or Goat yoghurt are best)
3 inch piece of cucumber
1 tsp capers, chopped
2 tbsp fresh mint, chopped finely
8 wholemeal pitta bread
Mint jelly to taste.

Method :

1.  Between 48 and 36 hours before you plan to cook the lamb, place all the marinade ingredients into a bowl and mix well.

2.  Take the lamb and pierce 2 inches into the piece repeatedly all over, with a sharp butcher's knife.  This will allow the marinade to really get in there and do its work.

3.  Place the lamb into a large stout plastic freezer bag and pour the marinade over.  Seal the bag and turn over repeatedly until the lamb is entirely covered.  I recommend you then place it into another large stout plastic freezer bag, as I discovered the aromas were very good at escaping!

4.  Put the bagged lamb into a dish - just in case of leakage - and keep it in your fridge until around an hour or so before you plan to cook it.  Turn the lamb over, to redistribute the marinade, whenever you pass by.

5.  Pre-heat the oven to 140degC/275degF/Gas 1, it shouldn't take long!

6.  Line a large roasting tin with a double layer of silver foil.  This will help when it comes to doing the dishes and you'll be glad you did.

7.  Open the bag and tip the lamb together with the marinade, into the lined roasting dish.  Add up to 500ml of water around the lamb (don't wash the marinade off the actual joint though!) and cover it all tightly with more silver foil.

8.  Place into the oven for the next three and half hours.  Check it half way through, just to make sure that the liquid levels are good.  Add a little more water, if necessary.

9.  In the meantime, make the yoghurt sauce by placing the yoghurt into a bowl.

10.  Using a fine grater, grate the cucumber into the bowl and add the capers, fresh mint, a pinch of sea salt and black pepper.  Stir to combine, then set aside in the fridge for the flavours to develop.

11.  Remove the top layer of silver foil from the lamb when there is a half an hour to go.  This will help colour the lamb and develop the flavours.

12.  Once the cooking time is up, remove the lamb from the roasting tin onto a chopping board.  I recommend dealing with half at a time, so cut it in half and return the other half to the roasting tin, cover it with foil, to keep warm.

13.  Using two forks, pull the lamb apart into shreds.  It is fairly easy to remove any large lumps of fat at this stage, if you so require.  Once the first half is pulled, move on to the second half.  Once the lamb is pulled, add two tablespoonfuls of the cooking liquid to the meat and set aside to keep warm while you prepare the pitta bread.

14.  Lightly toast the pitta bread and make a slit down one side of each.

15.  Smooth a teaspoonful of mint jelly (or you could use mint sauce if the sweet flavour of jelly isn't to your liking) onto one side of each pitta bread.

16.  Fill each pitta generously with pulled lamb, then add two teaspoonfuls or so of the yoghurt sauce.

Serve with oven baked sweet potato fries and a small salad.

Printable version

Stellar Slow Cooked Lamb Shanks

A few weeks before Christmas, Farmer's Choice Free Range Ltd got in touch with me via my Twitter page, to ask whether I would be interested in developing a couple of recipes for them to include on their website.  Well, how could I say no?  I've worked with Farmer's Choice on occasion and I know that their produce is terrific - and to develop one recipe for them would be a marvellous opportunity, never mind two of them.

So, after a bit of an email chinwag and conflab about what main ingredient to use, we came to the conclusion that lamb would be a great subject. Hence, this post deals particularly with the fantastic lamb shanks that arrived in the big and exciting box, but there will be another one (or two) involving the wonderful piece of rolled shoulder of lamb that arrived at the same time.  Something to look forward to!

Now these lamb shanks weren't just any old lamb shanks, they were e-flipping-normous, at 500g or so each.  Beautifully meaty and although they appear a little pricey at £11.20 for the two (price as at January 2015), they really are whoppers.  I could easily see just one shank feeding two children, off the bone, of course.

There were many reasons for wanting this recipe to be a little bit special, not least the fact that Farmer's Choice wanted to put it on their website.  (It's here, if you are curious!)  The quality of the lamb was the primary reason, as something so good just demanded respectful and celebratory treatment.

I had an image in my head of how I wanted the lamb to look on the plate - deeply coloured, richly flavoured and supported by a substantial, delicious sauce.  Initially, I had a quick peep at what lamb recipes they had already - as I didn't want to inadvertently echo someone else's ideas.  Knowing what to avoid is as valuable as knowing what to include!  I also asked on a couple of Facebook pages - Rhubarb & Ginger's included - about people's favourite lamb shank recipes.  The general consensus of opinion seemed to really rate any recipe that had red wine involved with it.  Red wine wasn't an obvious choice for me - and because of that, of course I had to go with it.

I knew that I wanted to use the slow cooker with the lamb shanks, as being well worked leg muscles, they would require long slow cooking to achieve that buttery, melting texture that is so mouthwatering.  As a consequence, I pondered additional ingredients that would cope well with slow cooking and lend their flavours to the meat.  Ingredients such as carrot, leek and celery along with herbs such as rosemary and mint - both of which are traditional herbs for lamb.  Now the traditional "sweet thing" that accompanies lamb is redcurrant - redcurrant jelly, ordinarily.  However, having just been through Christmas, cranberry was very much in my mind and I decided to go with the subtle dryness of cranberry as opposed to the high sharpness of redcurrant.  I thought that perhaps the acidity from the red wine would be better matched with the cranberry.

I had the basis of a tasty recipe, involving simple, traditional ingredients together with an economical, labour saving cooking method.  Of course, the fact that the very idea of all these ingredients coming together in a completed dish made my mouth water, was another good sign.

The method of cooking and preparation went well, the shanks behaved themselves in the slow cooker (didn't dissolve or stay raw!) and as I served the meal both the aroma and the look of the thing were so promising.

I had tasted all the way through the cooking process, checking for seasoning, tartness, sweetness, balance of flavours etc. and the finished article was just divine.  The meat was so soft you could cut it with a spoon, it just dissolved in your mouth with tenderness.  Juicy and so flavourful, I was thrilled.  Mmmn, so, so, delicious that the eating of it had me smiling in pleasure.  This was my son's first experience of a lamb shank and he was just as happy as I was.  He declared it to be "absolutely great!" and professed to be "in little diner's heaven" - which is high praise, believe me.

I served the lamb with some parsley mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables.  The sauce is packed with goodness and needs something like mashed potato to absorb all those lovely flavours.  You won't want to lose a bit of it just because you don't have a spoon to hand!  I found the parsley gave a nice fresh note to the comforting notes of the lamb.

This is the kind of recipe that you can use for a special Sunday dinner, a romantic dinner for two or a dinner party with friends - who will, I am sure, be requesting the lamb shanks again upon return visits!

Trimmed and ready to be seared

Now as for Cook's Tips, I have a few for you.

Firstly, when trimming the lamb shanks, don't be scared to remove the skin.  Personally, I think the sight of waterlogged, flabby skin on an otherwise glorious lamb shank is off putting in the extreme.  Because of the long slow cooking, the skin has no choice but to appear this way - and if you're keen to retain the flavour from it, you can always drop it into the slow cooker individually and fish it out before serving.

Remember that this is a long slow cook, so you'll need to defrost the lamb the night before and get cracking with preparation in the morning, to achieve the seven hours' cooking that is necessary.

A few tips as regards the ingredients - firstly, I found that using whole cranberry, cranberry sauce is preferable to the mashed up version.  That way, you stand more chance of tripping over a whole cranberry on your plate, which is an absolute delight.  Secondly, when chopping the fresh parsley, make sure to include the parsley stalks.  They won't be discernible on the plate, but the flavour is very valuable in the sauce.  Lastly, a vote of confidence for the award winning Essential Cuisine's Lamb stock.  Without doubt, the best lamb stock for a quality recipe.  If you haven't tried their range of stocks yet - where have you been?

My last tip for you is regarding the flour paste thickener for the sauce.  Make sure to take the pan off the heat before adding the paste and make sure to mix, mix, mix and stir, stir, stir, to prevent it setting into a gelatinous lump on the bottom of your pan.  Once incorporated into the sauce, it is then fine to replace onto the heat - but carry on stirring - the only way to ensure a lump free sauce.  You can thicken the sauce to your satisfaction, then set it aside until you are ready to heat it back up and serve, if necessary.

If, as I did, you find you have much more sauce than is required, for goodness sake don't throw it away.  Decant it into a bowl and refrigerate it for a tasty lunch the following day with some crusty bread.  Luscious!

Well, there you have it.  Enjoy the process, the cooking and most of all, the eating!   

Veggies and herbs, all ready for action

STELLAR SLOW COOKED LAMB SHANKS   (serves 2)

Ingredients :

2 tbsp olive oil
2 x 500g lamb shanks
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 sticks celery
1 large leek
2 carrots
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
10g salted butter
1 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped fine
2 bay leaves
2 tsp dried mint
400ml full bodied red wine
400ml lamb stock
125g cranberry sauce
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp plain flour.

Method :

1.  To begin, take the celery and remove the strings from the back of each stick.  Chop one and a half sticks finely and the remaining half, into bite sized pieces.  Place in separate bowls.  Chop two thirds of the leek finely and one third into bite sized pieces and place into the corresponding bowls so as to keep the finely chopped and bite sized pieces separate.  Chop two thirds of the peeled carrots finely and one third into bite sized pieces and place into the corresponding bowls.

2.  Take the parsley and remove the stalks from the leaves.  Chop the stalks and add to the finely chopped vegetables' bowl.  Reserve the chopped leaves for use later in the recipe.

3.  Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan until really quite hot.  Add the lamb shanks, sprinkle with a little sea salt & black pepper and sear them on all available sides until golden and caramelised.  Place them into the slow cooker with the bite sized vegetables and switch to low.

4.  Reduce the heat under the frying pan to moderate and add the onion, garlic, bay leaves and finely chopped vegetables.  Cook for some 5-10 minutes, until slightly softened.

5.  Add the butter, rosemary, dried mint, a pinch of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

6.  Stir to combine and allow to sweat and cook through a little more until the vegetables are somewhat transparent and softened and the herbs have become aromatic.

7.  Increase the heat under the pan, add the red wine and bring to a lively boil for some 2-3 minutes.

8.  Add the lamb stock, cranberry sauce, Worcestershire sauce and chopped parsley leaves.  Stir through and reduce the heat under the pan, back to moderate.

9.  Once the flavours have had 5 minutes or so to mingle, taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary.  I doubt you will require more salt, but I needed to add more pepper at this stage.

10.  Place the flour into a small bowl and wet down with water until it forms a loose, pourable paste.

11.  Remove the pan from the heat and slowly add the paste in a thin stream to the sauce, stirring very well and constantly.  Continue to stir until the paste has been accepted into the sauce.

12.  Pour the sauce into the slow cooker, giving everything a little stir to ensure everything is coated.  Replace the lid and cook for a minimum of 7 hours, returning to turn the shanks in the sauce, every 2 hours or so.  Depending on the size of your shanks, you may need to turn the slow cooker up to medium as you go.

13. When the cooking time is up, ladle the sauce from the slow cooker to a saucepan.  Turn the slow cooker to low in order to keep the shanks warm and run a slotted spoon through the sauce, returning any vegetables you may catch to the slow cooker.

14.  If necessary, you can skim any fat from the surface of the sauce, then bring to a gentle boil and allow it to reduce to a thicker, glossier appearance and an intensified flavour.  This is entirely to taste, so when you are happy with your sauce, you are ready to plate up.

Serve the shanks on buttery parsley mashed potatoes with the vegetables from the slow cooker, a selection of fresh vegetables and the gorgeous sauce poured over the shanks.  Heaven!

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