Slow-roasted Chermoula lamb shoulder By Angela Clutton
The delight of this roasted joint is that it starts off with the aubergine rounds making a bed for the meat. There they can take on its fat and juices as the lamb cooks, with the spicy chermoula and sherry vinegar marinade seeping into them too. The lamb then carries on to cook into tenderness, and the aubergines are blitzed to a creamy sauce with garlic and yoghurt. Simple and delicious.
Angela Clutton is an award-winning food writer, cook and presenter. Her first book, The Vinegar Cupboard, won the Jane Grigson Trust Award, was a double winner at the Guild of Food Writers Awards, and was the Debut Cookery Book of the Year at the Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards.
Ingredients
6 garlic cloves
1½ tbsp chermoula spice (not paste)
75ml (2½fl oz) olive oil
1½ tbsp sherry vinegar
1.2kg (2lb 11oz) aubergines (eggplants)
about 2.8kg (6lb 4oz) lamb shoulder
225g (8oz) Greek yoghurt
2 tsp lemon juice
handful of mint sprigs
salt and black pepper
Method
Preheat the oven to 220°C fan/475°F/gas 9.
Peel 4 garlic cloves, crush, put into a mortar with a good pinch of salt and pestle to a paste. Mix with the chermoula, oil and vinegar to make a loose paste.
Trim and peel the aubergines, and then slice into rounds, 1cm (½in) thick. Lay them in a large roasting tin, arranging the aubergines to be roughly the same size as the lamb. Sit the lamb skin-side up on top of the aubergines. Pierce its skin several times with the point of a sharp knife. Rub the chermoula paste over the skin. Loosely cover the roasting tin with foil, put into the oven and immediately turn the oven down to 170°C fan/375°F/gas 5.
After 1½ hours, take the tin out and gently lift up the lamb to remove the aubergine slices. Some might be stuck to the base of the joint – be sure to get them all. Put the aubergines slices into a sieve set over a bowl to drain. Pour 200ml (7fl oz) hot water into the roasting tin (but not over the meat), cover it again, return to the oven and turn the temperature down to 140°C fan/300°F/gas 2. Roast for a further 2½ hours, then put the oven back up to 220°C fan/475°F/gas 9, take off the foil, and return to the oven for a final 20 minutes. Carefully lift out the lamb and set aside to rest.
Make the aubergine cream while the lamb rests: Peel and roughly chop the remaining 2 garlic cloves. Blitz the aubergine flesh with the garlic, yoghurt and lemon juice. Season, being particularly generous with the salt. Finely chop the mint leaves from one of the mint sprigs and scatter over. Serve with more mint to garnish.
