Slow roasted shoulder of lamb with garlic, rosemary and anchovies

Ingredients (serves 2-3):

1/2 shoulder of lamb

4-5 small/medium sized potatoes

1 carrot

3 celery sticks

5 shallots

a handful of mushrooms

2 rosemary sprigs

1 bay leaf

2 cloves of garlic

2 anchovies

200ml of white wine and 200ml of stock

olive oil

salt and pepper

mixed greens

• Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees
• Peel the potatoes, carrot, celery, shallots and mushrooms and cut into chunks
• Make slits with a sharp knife in the lamb and insert slices of garlic, rosemary and a piece of anchovy into each. Season the lamb with salt and pepper.
• Add some olive oil to a large oven and hob proof dish and place on the hob on quite a high heat.
• Add the lamb and chopped veg to the dish and allow them to brown for around 5 minutes. Turn the veg and lamb over half way through.
• Transfer the dish to the hot oven and allow to roast for 30 minutes.
• Take the dish out of the oven and turn the heat down to 140 degrees. Add the wine, stock and bay leaf and put back in the oven for another 2 hours.
• Check on it occasionally and turn the veg and lamb over every half an hour or so. Add a little more stock and/or wine if it needs it and season to taste when there is about 10 minutes cooking time left.
• Towards the end of the lamb cooking time, cook some mixed greens in salted water and drain.
• When ready, turn the oven off, remove the dish from the oven and transfer the lamb shoulder to a chopping board. Put the dish with the veg and juices in it back into the oven to keep warm.
• Slice the meat off the bone - you should be able to pull chunks away using just a fork.
• To serve, place a pile of the greens in a deep bowl and ladle the lamb and vegetables on top. Finish by ladling some extra juices from the pan on top of the lamb.

Rabbit and rosemary pie

As the weather has been a bit rubbish recently we decided that a pie was in order for a rainy Saturday night in. Apart from a pastry disaster (and a quick trip to Sainsburys for some ready made stuff!) it was pretty easy really.

Ingredients (serves 2):

300g diced wild rabbit (we got ours from Waitrose)
plain flour, for dusting
a couple of rosemary sprigs, finely chopped

tea spoon dried thyme

4 shallots, diced

1 clove garlic, chopped

1/2 pack chestnut mushrooms, sliced

2 slices of pancetta, diced

1 bay leaf

1/2 tea spoon dijon mustard

200ml chicken stock

200ml white wine

pastry (puff or shortcrust)
olive oil

egg

1. Pre heat the oven to approx 150 degrees.


2. Dust the rabbit with flour, salt and pepper, and brown in a hot pan, then set aside.


3. Fry the shallots, garlic, pancetta and mushrooms until soft, add the browned rabbit meat.


4. Add the herbs and bay leaf, followed by the stock, wine and mustard. Cook on a high heat for a few minutes to cook off some of the alcohol.
   
5. Transfer the rabbit mixture into an oven proof dish, cook in a low oven for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, stirring occasionally. The liquid content should have reduced by 1/2 to 3/4. Turn the oven up to 200 degrees once you've taken the filling out.
   
6. Prepare the pastry (we won't give suggestions here after our dreadful attempt!).


7. Transfer the filling into a pie dish and top with pastry. Egg wash the pastry top and put in the hot oven for approx 30 minutes.

We didn't feel that it needed extra gravy but you could have some if you wanted. The pie was very rich and full of flavour, so we had it with plain boiled new potatoes and steamed asparagus.