Pigeon Cottage Kitchen

This is a brilliant meal to have up your sleeve for any informal friends and family gathering throughout the year. The slow cooked shoulder of lamb is super-easy as you just season it and leave to it cook slowly in the oven for a few hours – you can make it the day before and simply reheat it on the day too. When you’re ready to serve just dot plates of warmed flatbreads and the red onion relish, cucumber and chopped coriander around the table for people to help themselves. Trust me, it’s a real crowdpleaser!

Ingredients

• Half (4-5) or full shoulder of lamb (6-10) depending on how many people you need to feed
• Salt and pepper
• 1 tbsp smoked paprika
• Full fat Greek yoghurt – half or full tub
• Half or full cucumber
• 1 tsp white wine vinegar
• 2tsps extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
• 2 tbsps red wine vinegar
• A pinch of sugar
• Fresh coriander
• Flatbreads or pitta breads – enough for one or two per person. Baby pittas are great for kids and wraps or flatbreads for the adults.

To make…

• Season the lamb with salt, pepper and smoked paprika and then places the shoulder in a heavy cast iron pot with a lid or a heavy baking dish with a tightly covered layer of tin foil. Place it in the oven at 130C and leave for 5 hours. Turn up the oven to 200C for the last half an hour and cook with the lid off. The lamb should simply fall off the bone and the skin should be crisp and golden.
• To serve, I usually remove the bone and any bits of connective tissue and shred it on a serving plate. Pour the pan juice over the lamb (you can reduce it in a pan if there’s a lot as you don’t want the meat swimming in it) and sprinkle over some Maldon salt and cracked black pepper.
• While the lamb cooks, make the garnishes.
• Red onion relish: the red onion needs to be very thinly sliced from root to tip and then marinated in the red wine vinegar, a pinch each of salt and sugar. Stir the onion through the pickling vinegar so every bit is coated and turn it a couple of times over an hour or so. The onion should be slightly softened but still have a little bite but it will lose its harsh raw flavour.
• Cucumber yoghurt: halve and then quarter the cucumber and then slice the seedy part in the middle out. Cut each quarter into fine dice. Stir into the Greek yoghurt and season with a little salt and pepper, a drop of white wine vinegar and a dessertspoon of extra virgin olive oil.
• To serve place the red onion, the cucumber yoghurt and the chopped coriander into serving bowls dotted about the table. Add the plate of shredded lamb in the centre with warmed flat breads either end of the table. Let everyone dig in!

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