Welcome to my first At Least I Can Cook – Let’s Eat post! It’s a rainy, balmy Sunday in Bedford, NS (near Halifax) – Ophelia, the hurricane du jour is tickling our shores, bringing rain, showers, fog and humid weather – almost summer in October which is okay since we didn’t have any summer in July! It’s a braising kind of day – a day to nestle a gorgeous piece of meat into tomatoes, fresh rosemary and thyme, lots of garlic and tuck this into a slow oven for several hours while I get on with other things. Other things including publishing my first blogs, letting friends and family know that At Least I Can Cook is live and running back and forth between my computer and the kitchen. (Julie and Julia is playing in the adjacent family room for inspiration!)
My first food post will be braised lamb shoulder. Our family loves lamb – leg, shanks, ground and shoulder and we especially love lamb from Wood ‘N Hart farm, which Bill (see good looking man to the right) sells out of the “old” Halifax Farmers Market. Yesterday, we picked up two shoulders, about 1.5 pounds each – two because my family LOVES lamb – and I’m going to follow Alice Waters’ braising guidance (from The Art of Simple Food) to turn these two gorgeous shoulders into Sunday dinner!
I’m using two small shoulders, about 1.5 lb. each, because that’s what Bill had left by the time we got to the market. Rosemary, thyme, juicy fresh garlic, onions and some canned tomatoes will form the sauce base. Look at these beautiful roasts, resting comfortably while they await the salt and pepper shakers.
Assemble your ingredients, hopefully you can find wonderful, fresh garlic.
Chop your onions, garlic and carrots, gather (from the fridge, or your backyard herb garden) sprigs of rosemary and thyme. Pour the canned tomatoes into the bottom of your roasting pan and scatter the chopped vegetables and herb sprigs on top. Nestle the roasts into the vegetables and pour over chicken broth and some good white wine (I used an Australian chardonnay recommended by NSLC).
Leave uncovered and pop into a 375 degree oven for approximately two and one half hours in total. After 90 minutes, turn the lamb over, it will be golden brown and turning it keeps it from drying out. Roast for another 30 minutes, turn again and continue for a last 20 -30 minutes.
Remove from oven and remove roast from pan. I cooked mine ahead of time and refrigerated the roast for about 3 – 4 hours. Time to finish the sauce and prep some sweet and white potatoes and cauliflower for roasting at 400 degrees for 40 – 50 minutes or until done.
After I skimmed the fat (which Alice Waters recommended, but I really didn’t find much) I used my hand blender to puree most of the sauce, probably 3/4 of it, leaving some of the vegetables whole for texture. I replaced the roasts, reheated prior to dinner, sliced and served. Here’s what the roasts looked like with the pureed sauce.
I hope you enjoy as much as we did! We could have eaten more though (there were 6 of us) and so we found the “Veal Prince Orloff” Mary Tyler Moore episode to watch after dinner and had a big chuckle. Suffice to say, there were no leftovers!
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Braised Wood N Hart Braised Lamb Shoulder
This recipe is adapted from Alice Waters Long Cooked Lamb Shoulder from The Art of Simple Food.
- 3 lb total lamb shoulder, boneless
- 14 oz. canned tomatoes, broken up with a spoon
- 6 medium garlic cloves, sliced
- 2 medium onions, chopped
- 4 medium carrots, chopped
- 5 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 5 sprigs fresh thyme
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1 cup white wine
Cooking Directions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Season lamb with plenty of salt and pepper and rest at room temperature while you prep the vegetables.
- Choose a baking dish or roasting pan in which the lamb and vegetables will fit snugly.
- Place tomatoes in bottom of roasting pan and top with onions, garlic, carrots and herbs.
- Place lamb on top and pour wine and broth around.
- Roast uncovered for approximately two and a half hours total. Turn roasts after 90 minutes, top will be brown and turning will keep the meat moist.
- Roast for 30 minutes longer and turn again.
- Turn over one more time for 20 - 30 minutes until fork tender.
- Remove from oven and remove lamb from roasting pan. Can be made ahead and lamb can be cooled slightly and then refrigerated while you finish sauce.
- Pour half to three quarters of the sauce into a bowl and using a hand blender blend slightly - sauce should still be slightly chunky. If you prefer, a blender can be used for this step.
- Return pureed sauce to pan, return lamb and reheat.
- Slice thickly and serve with sauce.