Recipes: Scottish lamb

This is the season for Blackface lamb. Many years ago now, I was invited to do a demonstration at Ingliston by the Blackface Sheep Breeders’ Association. I was honoured to be asked, yet worried about finding enough recipes for the hour-and-a-half demonstration. When I started to think about what to cook, I very soon realised that I could have cooked recipe after recipe for 24 hours, never mind just 90 minutes. Of all the non-special breeds of lamb, Blackface has the best flavour of all, in spite of the small size of the joints.

These recipes can, of course, be made using any breed of lamb. Lamb is the most versatile meat – almost every part of the animal is useful. Its taste is enhanced by the widest range of other foods and flavours in the form of herbs and spices. Next week I shall write about offal, and include a recipe using lambs’ liver.

Lamb meatballs

SERVES 4

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 onions, each skinned, halved, and very finely diced

1 level teaspoon cumin seeds, bashed in a pestle and mortar – to release their flavour

1 teaspoon salt, about 15 grinds of black pepper

1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley

1 tablespoon finely chopped mint

1½ lb/675g minced lamb

2 tablespoons flour, sieved

olive oil

 

Heat the olive oil in a sauté pan and fry the finely diced onion with the bashed cumin, salt and black pepper, stirring occasionally, for 3-4 minutes. Then scoop the fried diced onions into a bowl, and mix in the chopped parsley and mint. Leave to cool.

Put the lamb into a large mixing bowl and, with your hands, mix in the cooled onion mixture. Form the lamb mixture into small balls, about the size of a walnut, and roll each between the palms of your hands. If you make up the meatballs in advance, put them onto a tray, loosely cover with cling film, and store in the fridge.

Before frying, roll each meatball in flour. Heat a tablespoon or two of olive oil in a non-stick sauté pan, and fry the meatballs, well spaced in the sauté pan to allow for ease in turning them over. Cook them for about 5 minutes, removing them with a spoon to a warmed dish as they cook, to enable you to cook the remainder. They keep warm well, covered with foil, in a low-temperature oven, for up to an hour.

Braised lamb shanks with root vegetables

A mature lamb will yield sufficient meat for two people from one shank. To serve 6, I would cook 4. I remove the meat from the shanks before serving – apart from anything else, it makes dishing up so much easier.

SERVES 6

4 lamb shanks

3 tablespoons olive oil

4 parsnips, peeled, trimmed at either end and sliced into strips

4 medium onions, each skinned, halved and very thinly sliced

4 leeks, trimmed at either end and outer leaves removed, thinly sliced

½ turnip, peeled and cut into chunks

1 pint/570ml stock with

1 tablespoon tomato purée stirred in

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, 1 teaspoon salt

In a large casserole, brown the lamb shanks, removing them to a large warmed dish. Add the parsnip strips to the casserole and let them cook over high heat until they are changing colour slightly at their edges, then scoop them into the dish with the shanks. Next, fry the thinly sliced onions and leeks, till the onions are soft and transparent. Scoop this into the dish with the shanks and parsnips and lastly, fry the small chunks of turnip, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes. Stir the stock and tomato purée into the turnip and add the pepper and salt, and then place everything else – lamb shanks, parsnip strips, onions and leeks, into the casserole, and bring the liquid to a gentle simmer.

Cover the casserole with its lid and cook in a low moderate heat, from simmering on top, 150C/300F/Gas Mark 3, for 2½-3 hours, or until the meat is falling from the shanks. Take the casserole from the oven and leave to cool down, then, while still just warm, remove the meat from the shanks, discarding the bones and any gristle you encounter. Leave the casserole and its contents to grow cold, then skim any fat from the surface. Keep covered, for up to two days in the fridge. To reheat, take from the fridge half an hour before bringing the contents of the casserole up to a gentle simmer on top of your cooker, then continue to cook the contents in a moderate heat, 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4, from simmering, for a further 20-25 minutes.

Serve, with mashed potatoes and a green vegetable, such as kale or cabbage.

Spiced lamb with pickled lemons and spinach

SERVES 6

2lb/900g lamb, trimmed of fat and cut into chunks about 1in/2.5cm in size

1 tablespoon flour, 1 teaspoon salt, about 20 grinds of black pepper, in a large polythene bag

3 tablespoons olive oil

6 onions, skinned, halved and sliced 2 fat cloves of garlic, skinned and diced finely

1 rounded teaspoon cumin seeds, bashed in a deep bowl with the end of a rolling pin

1 tablespoon chopped pickled lemons – these can now be bought in jars

1 pint/570ml stock

1lb/450g young spinach leaves

Put the chunks of lamb into the polythene bag with the flour, salt and black pepper and shake the bag hard, to coat each bit of lamb with seasoned flour.

Heat the olive oil in a large casserole. Fry the finely sliced onions – it looks a large amount but as they fry, as you stir from time to time, they collapse down – until they are soft, and turning golden at their edges. At this point, add the diced garlic and bashed cumin seeds, and cook for a further couple of minutes. Scoop the onions from the casserole into a warm bowl, and raise the heat a bit beneath the casserole. Brown the floured lamb in small relays, turning the pieces of lamb over so that they brown on all sides.

As one batch of lamb is browned, scoop it into the dish with the onions. When all the lamb is browned, replace everything – browned lamb and onions etc into the casserole and stir in the chopped pickled lemons and the stock. Stir until the liquid simmers, then cover the pan with its lid and cook in a moderate heat, 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4, for 1 hour 15 minutes – stick a fork into a bit of lamb, it should feel tender. If it doesn’t, replace the lid and cook for a further 15 minutes.

Take the casserole from the oven and cool completely. Store in the fridge for up to 2 days. To reheat, take the casserole from the fridge half an hour before reheating on the top of your cooker until the liquid reaches simmering point, then cook the casserole from simmering, in the same moderate heat as for its initial cooking, for 20-25 minutes. Take the casserole from the oven and lift the lid off. Plunge the spinach – it looks a lot, it quickly wilts right down – in amongst the lamb and onions, and mix in as best you can. Cover with the lid, leave for a couple of minutes then stir the wilted spinach evenly through the ingredients. Serve within 10 minutes of adding the spinach to the casserole. This is good with boiled basmati rice, or bulgur wheat. I like to roast chunks of aubergine and stir them through the bulgur wheat – yum!