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cooking up a storm at the edge of the world

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Nigel Slater’s Slow Cooked Lamb (Shetland Produce)

Published on January 15, 2013 • Last updated September 27, 2017 by Elizabeth
slow-cooked-lambAt the start of Autumn I bought a local lamb for the winter freezer. (Cost £30). With the unpredictable weather we can get in the winter cutting off our lifeline service to the mainland it’s always a good plan to stock up a deep freeze. There have been times I’ve been to the local shop and there’s been nothing but a pig’s trotter for sale in the meat section (this really did happen!). The lamb came delivered in a black bin bag, with each cut individually wrapped in labelled freezer bags. Some of the cuts are like nothing you’d get in a supermarket, as you can see! Then, a few weeks later, I was gifted another lamb by a neighbour as a thank you for a gift I’d given his family. My freezer is full of lamb (and trout and blackberries, you’ll have noticed if you read my blog regularly!).  We usually prefer to cook the larger cuts of lamb in the slow cooker with Moroccan style seasonings, but I fancied a change. Something baked in the oven. Something in a ‘meat & tatties’ homely sort of way. I found this recipe by Nigel Slater for a slow cooked leg of lamb with a herb rub which looked absolutely scrummy and of course, I had to adapt it slightly to use the ingredients I had on hand, namely local produce.

shetland-lambJ.K. Mainlands Local Potatoes are the best potatoes I have ever, ever eaten. They make the most wonderful mash. I can never leave Shetland because I would miss them so much! I also had to add some Shetland Seaweed sprinkle to Slater’s delicious mash recipe (only to improve it, of course, and because Bod Ayre seaweed sprinkle goes into nearly everything I make these days!).

shetland-potatoesOrkney smoked garlic is out of this world with flavour too. It could be because the only other options are the tiny supermarket garlic or the hideously out of date dried up garlic at the village shop (am I the only one who buys garlic?!) but I think that the Orkney smoked garlic has a marvellous depth of flavour. The cloves are big, fat and juicy too and they make a wicked aioli.

herbs-for-lambA further adaptation to Slater’s recipe was that I thickened the gravy with some cornflour dissolved in water and I left the foil off the lamb for the final 15 minutes of cooking. Without browning the lamb looked a little bit like that poor sheep I’d found, long deceased, in a peat bog up the hill (poor thing!). Slater’s lamb recipe required browning to look palatable.

All in all this slightly adapted Nigel Slater recipe is a splendid method to cook a lamb roast. The resulting dish is moist and tender, full of flavour (that’s because it’s Shetland lamb!) and falls off the bone. The mash was a perfect accompaniment (although by the end you could notice that there was an awful lot of butter in it – you could easily reduce the butter content by 1/3, at least). Still, in the middle of winter when you’re wanting a comforting meat & potatoes sort of meal, this is it!

Slow Cooked Shetland Lamb
by Elizabeth
A delicious, fall-off-the-bone, flavoursome lamb recipe using local produce
Ingredients
  • large cut of Shetland lamb
  • 1 bulb Orkney smoked garlic
  • 1 tbsp sea salt flakes
  • 2 sprigs, fresh rosemary, leaves only
  • 1 tsp dried thyme
  • drizzle extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 heaped tsp cornflour
  • 1 kg J.K. Mainlands selected local Shetland potatoes
  • 100 grams butter
  • 25 grams parmesan cheese
  • 1 tsp Shetland Seaweed Sprinkle
  • sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 160 C
2. Separate and peel the cloves of garlic.
3. Combine garlic, sea salt flakes, rosemary and thyme in a mortar and pestle. Grind until it forms a paste.
4. Drizzle with enough olive oil to form a thick paste.
5. Rub the garlic herb paste all over the outside of the lamb and place lamb in a roasting tin.
6. Add 250ml water and cover the lamb tightly with foil.
7. Roast for 3 – 3 1/2 hours, until tender.
8. Remove foil and transfer the lamb to another oven-proof dish. Return to the oven, without foil, for 10-15 minutes, or until the lamb browns nicely.
9. Remove lamb from the oven and let rest for 15 minutes.
10. Skim as much fat as you can off the top of the remaining liquid. Pour into a small saucepan.
11. Bring the liquid to the boil. Stir in the cornflour which has been dissolved in cold water. Season to taste. Keep warm.
12. Cook potatoes in boiling, salted water until tender.
13. Mash with the butter and the seaweed. Stir in the Parmesan and season to taste.
Details

Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: 3 hour 30 mins Total time: 4 hour Yield: serves 3-4

I am entering this recipe into Farmersgirl Kitchen’s Dish of the Month, which features recipes from Nigel Slater.

Category: Lamb, Recipe

About Elizabeth

Solivagant. Foodie. Calls Shetland home.

Previous Post:Khobez (Bread machine)
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Comments

  1. Barbara.irwin

    September 26, 2017 at 10:34 pm

    The list of ingredients mentions Parmesan but can’t see it in the actual recipe?

    Reply
    • Elizabeth

      September 27, 2017 at 5:18 am

      Sorry, I’ve edited it now – it gets stirred into the mashed potatoes at the end.

      Reply
  2. Sue Bowden

    April 7, 2016 at 3:21 pm

    love lamb and so going try this receipe x

    Reply
  3. Ursula Hunt

    May 19, 2015 at 12:22 pm

    Great recipe, the lamb will be so tender

    Reply
  4. Jo Bryan

    November 23, 2014 at 11:40 am

    A gorgeous recipe, slow cooked, tender lamb is just beautiful. thanks

    Reply
  5. Debbie Skerten

    October 23, 2014 at 12:26 pm

    Sounds fabulous.

    Reply
  6. Heather Haigh

    August 23, 2014 at 10:06 am

    Can;t get my hands on Shetland lamb but Yorkshire lamb is pretty good. We are lucky in having quite a lot of farm shops in the area – nice drive out and come back with some lovely grub. I do love my slow cooker too. Though it’s taking me so long to decide what to do with my lamb today it will probably be too late to use it lol. Working my way through your lamb recipes today for inspiration. 🙂

    Reply
    • Elizabeth

      August 23, 2014 at 10:47 am

      That reminds me – it’s about time I placed my order for my yearly lamb! We can get a whole one for around £30 which is a fantastic price. Grown out on the hill beside our house too so low food miles!

      Reply
      • Heather Haigh

        August 24, 2014 at 8:33 am

        Wow! That’s amazing value and such good provenance. I like the fact that we can see the animals that our meat comes from in the fields around the farms we buy it from. Some people are a bit squeamish about it but I find it reassuring to see them being reared in good conditions.

        Reply
  7. glenn hutton

    June 28, 2014 at 4:00 pm

    This looks amazing and so very tasty. I live in the Suffolk contryside and i am very suprised that you got the lamb so cheap. Isthere anywhere you could recommend for my area to purchase in bulk at fantastic prices?

    Reply
    • Elizabeth

      June 28, 2014 at 5:26 pm

      I think the reason I get it so cheap is because it comes from my neighbour’s field. There’s no supermarket middle man (except for the slaughterhouse fee of course!). You can buy Shetland lamb online from Brigg’s PDO lamb, but that’s pure bred Shetland lamb so you pay a dearer price for it. I’m unsure of any other suppliers, but I’ll ask around and if I hear of any I’ll let you know.

      Reply
  8. KATE SARSFIELD

    June 26, 2014 at 9:17 pm

    Can’t believe you got a whole lamb for £30 (about €35 – 35). We love lamb in our family (Mum’s Welsh!) but can rarely afford it. The last leg I got from my local butcher set me back nearly €50. The mint sauce lasted longer than the lamb!

    Reply
  9. Susan heavenonaplate

    January 17, 2013 at 8:58 pm

    Crikey I am so envious of the quality of this local food…it makes such a difference to flavours too. This is a lovely recipe and you really had me salivating. Thank you for getting involved.

    Reply
  10. belleau kitchen

    January 16, 2013 at 12:54 am

    this is what I love about living in the middle of nowhere with farmers as neighbours… I had nearly a whole pig in the freezer at one point… the lamb looks incredible, very melt in the mouth and perfect for this dreadful weather!

    Reply
    • Elizabeth

      January 16, 2013 at 7:56 am

      Rural living certainly has its advantages! Locally grown meat always tastes so much better than the mass produced mistreated supermarket varieties, I think.

      Reply
  11. Foodie Quine

    January 15, 2013 at 9:05 pm

    That sounds lovely. Perfect comfort food. Tell me more about Seaweed Sprinkle?

    Reply
    • Elizabeth

      January 15, 2013 at 9:12 pm

      It was a lovely meal; I’ll definitely be making it again. Seaweed Sprinkle is sustainably produced by a local Shetland company, Bod Ayre. They harvest and dry edible seaweeds and package them in this handy little grinder. I’ve been putting it in nearly everything these days! It’s supposed to be really, really good for you – loads of nutrients and trace minerals and whatnot.

      Reply
  12. Janice Pattie

    January 15, 2013 at 8:48 pm

    Another stunning recipe. I love lamb and this sounds the perfect way to cook it. Thanks for joining in with Dish of the Month.

    Reply

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Cooking up a storm at the edge of the world

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I’m based in the wild and remote Shetland Islands, where I’ve been sharing my adventure-fuelling recipes since 2011.

“Sometimes you need to go outside, get on your bike, and remind yourself of who you are and who you want to be.

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