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Anyone have the recipe (Delia?) for slow cooked lamb with pomegranate?

11 replies

Medea · 20/10/2005 14:34

I'm doing a last-minute menu change for a dinner part on Saturday. . .anyone have this recipe? I've no time to go to a library or book shop. TIA, if anyone can help.

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Medea · 20/10/2005 14:34

By the way, thanks for the suggestion, Blu.

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orangina · 20/10/2005 14:36

I wish I did, it sounds delicious! Will keep an eye on this thread instead ....

WigWamBam · 20/10/2005 14:44

I don't know about Delia, but Nigella has a recipe for slow-cooked lamb with pomegranate which might do at a pinch.

Ingredients:

  • 1 shoulder of lamb (approx 2.5 kilograms)
  • 4 shallots halved but not peeled
  • 6 cloves garlic left whole
  • 1 carrot peeled and halved
  • Malden salt
  • 500ml boiling water
  • small handful freshly chopped mint
  • 1 pomegranate

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 140C/ gas mark 1.

On the hob, brown the lamb, fat side down, in a large roasting tin. Remove when nicely browned in the middle (you won't get much more than this) and set aside while you fry the vegetables briefly. Just tip them into the pan - you won't need to add any more fat - and cook them, sprinkled with salt, gently for a couple of minutes. Pour the water over and then replace the lamb, this time fat side up. Let the liquid in the pan come to a bubble, then tent with foil and put in the preheated oven.

Now just leave it there while you sleep. I find that if I put the lamb in before I go to bed, it's perfect by lunchtime the next day. But the point is, at this temperature, nothing's going to go wrong with the lamb if you cook it for a little less or a little more.

If you want to cook the lamb the day you're going to eat it, heat the oven to 170C/ gas mark 3 and give it 5 hours or so. The point is to find a way of cooking that suits you: you know what sort of pottering relaxes you and what makes you feel constrained; how much time you've got, and how you want to use it. Don't let the food, the kitchen or the imagined expectations of other people bully you.

With that homily over, about an hour before you want to eat, remove the lamb from the tin to a large plate or carving board; not that it needs carving: the deal here is that it's unfashionably overcooked, falling to tender shreds at the touch of a fork. This is the best way to deal with shoulder of lamb: it's cheaper than leg, and the flavour is deeper, better, truer, but even good carvers, which I most definitely am not, can get unstuck trying to slice it.

I get on with the peppers while the lamb's sitting meekly, but you could equally well have done this earlier, too (and see below for instructions). But to finish the lamb salad, simply pull it to pieces with a couple forks on a large plate. Sprinkle with more Malden salt and some freshly chopped mint, then cut the pomegranate in half and dot with the seeds from one of the halves. This is easily done; there's a simple trick, which means you never have to think of winkling out the jewelled pips with a safety pin ever again. Simply hold the pomegranate half above the plate, take a wooden spoon and start bashing the curved skin side with it. Nothing will happen for a few seconds, but have faith. In a short while the red glassy, juicy beads will start raining down.

Take the other half and squeeze the preposterously pink juices over the warm shredded meat. Take to the table and serve.

What I do with the leftovers is warm a pitta bread in the microwave, and then spread it with a greedy dollop of hummous, then take the chill off the fridged lamb in the microwave too (and see notes on cold fat, above) and stuff the already gooey pitta with it. Add freshly chopped mint, black pepper and whatever else you like; raw, finely chopped red onion goes dangerously well.

inkyminky · 20/10/2005 14:46

Drooool, WigWamBam, dont do that to a pregnant lady, I want lamb now! Sounds lovely

WigWamBam · 20/10/2005 14:57

It's the way she describes it, isn't it ... I could drool myself, and I'm veggie!

Blu · 20/10/2005 15:08

That's the one! Sorry, Nigella, not Delia. I had it at someone elses house - it's REALLY good!

Medea · 20/10/2005 15:57

You're a goddess wigwambam. . .and thanks everyone else, too.

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3PRINCESSES · 20/10/2005 16:17

Good luck. Will be thinking of you on Saturday-- let us know how it goes!

Medea · 20/10/2005 17:22

Thanks 3princesses. . .I'm a bundle of nerves. . .had to change the menu because 2 of the guests are Jewish & I thought better not to serve pork, as they adhere to kosher laws to some degree and may not even appreciate the presence of pork on the table.

Anyway, I don't even have my shopping done and house is a tip, but I'm too stressed to focus aaaaaaaargh!

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3PRINCESSES · 20/10/2005 17:34

You'll be fine! The lamb recipe is great too, but doesn't serve as many... Quantities she gives are for 6-8, I think. Will that be enough?

Medea · 20/10/2005 17:44

Maybe I'd better get a larger lamb shoulder then. . .d'you think the cooking time would be the same. . .well, obviously, given it's an overnighter. Thanks for the reassurance & for all your advice. I'll report back. x

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