Slow-Cooked Lamb Shoulder With Black Garlic Sauce

Lamb is a classic dish for slow cooking, and a bone-in lamb shoulder is ideal as the fat bastes the meat to keep it moist and sweet tasting. Black garlic adds a touch of sweet and tart savouriness to the sauce. You could also do this with a bone-in leg of lamb.

Prep:
30 mins
Cook:
4 hours
Serves:
8-10

Ingredients

1 bone-in lamb shoulder (approx. 1.6kg)

a few sprigs rosemary

4 cloves garlic, cut into slivers

olive oil

1 cup red wine

1 cup chicken stock

1 large elephant black garlic (or 4 small ones)

Method

Preheat the oven to 220°C

Bring the lamb up to room temperature and pat dry. Cut some slits in the lamb skin with the tip of your knife. Pull off the rosemary leaves and insert in the slits with a piece of garlic

Rub with olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper. Put into a roasting dish along with the wine and chicken stock. Put into the oven and cook for 20 mins, lower the temperature to 160°C and cover the lamb with a lid or tightly wrap with foil. Roast for 2 ½ hours, remove the foil and check to see if the meat is tender (if not return to the oven for a further hour)

Baste the meat with the cooking juices and turn up the heat to 200C for a further 20 mins or until the skin has a good colour. Put the meat on a warm platter while you make the black garlic sauce

Strain off any fat in the roasting dish and put the juices into a blender with the black garlic until smooth. Put into a small saucepan and simmer gently for 10 mins to reduce slightly

For a thicker gravy-style sauce, mix 2 tsp of cornflour with 2 Tbsp water and whisk through the hot black garlic sauce for a few minutes until thickened