LAMB ON ITS OWN

The point about lamb is that it should have such a rich fragrance of its own. But since we are unseasonally eating New Zealand variety right now and it has much thicker layers of fat, it needs more help to emerge. Decking it in boughs of rosemary will not do. It can be so oleaginous that you need something to cut through that. And salted anchovies do the job just fine.

I was tempted last week to buy out of season, by a whole lamb shoulder, blade boned out but knuckle bone in. Once I had got it home, it revealed those very veins of fat and tissue which would need breaking down with long, slow cooking. Ideal for Sundays, when you want something to look forward to.

Chop up the meat any old how, disposing of the main bits of fat and separate the bone leaving it meaty. Cover a large flat tray with foil. Cut potatoes and fennel bulbs long ways into segments to cover the tray (you can do the same with young artichokes in season). Throw in some whole garlic cloves, salt and pepper and sprinkle with olive oil (unscented!). If you like the idea of using anchovies, they do something special here, mix some with the meat, ensuring they merge and then lay it all, including the bone, over the top of the vegetables. Put in the oven uncovered at a high temperature for about half an hour to get the thing roasting and the fat from the lamb running. Once it looks comfortably on its way, put foil over it, tuck it in so no moisture can escape and turn the heat right down – just enough to keep it cooking (130C?). While it slumbers away in the oven go out, walk the dogs, read the papers, take a nap, have tea, tiffin whatever. It needs about 4 or 5 hours. Take it all straight to the table when you are ready to eat it, so that the odours serenade you with olfactory orisons as you remove the foil. Let your guests greedily pick at it themselves and serve with a crisp, green salad and ravishing bread.

Set the bone aside with whatever meat on it and boil it with a chopped leek for a couple of hours. You’ll have a strong stock perfect for soup or an easy porcini risotto.

Recipes and restaurants food often seems stuck in a herb cliche. Fish and dill, chicken and tarragon, rosemary and lamb. If herbs aren't actually going to make things better why use them at all? But of course used with elegance and grace, their effect can be stupendous. Elizabeth David did approve of seeing an old woman dipping rosemary branches in oil to brush on a fish she was roasting over charcoal. Might be nice on a barbeque. I have mixed feelings on those too.

TENDER WORDS

Tender (2009) tells the story of Nigel Slater's love affair with his garden in Islington and the many seedlings he has raised in his box-hedged vegetable patches. It’s a magnificent volume, like a medieval knightly treatise with pictures of his Eden, its produce and many of the recipes he has created from them.

23 May, 2010

FOOD FROM THE HEART

Cooking is a basic human instinct. We’ve been eating, chopping, shaping, flavouring, enticing ingredients into something delicious since time began. But as the way many of us live has changed, the basic skills we require to cook, are no longer valued and it’s often easier to let others take control of what we eat.

21 April, 2010

IN A RIGHT FISH STEW

This week we had sustainable fish stew. It’s a quick and easy way to feed a gang of hungries on a Friday night and doesn’t need much else but some good bread and wine. Like all stews, you need balance, rich liquid and a range of potent flavours steaming from your pot.

15 March, 2010