Slow Roast Shoulder of Lamb – The Slow Food Movement

Lamb shoulder is a cheaper cut of meat, it being much more muscly than other bits of it and so taking longer to cook. However, as with most things, the longer the road the better the end. Slow roasted lamb can be pulled apart with a fork, melts in your mouth and has a really deep, rich flavour. This is my default Sunday roast, it’s also my default “I’ve got a load of people to feed” dinner. We had 6 hungry mouths a couple of weeks ago and there was no trace left of it by the end!

The beauty of this recipe is the simplicity. A friend of mine was asking about it saying she wished she cooked more roasts but couldn’t be bothered with the hassle. This is the thing about this recipe; there is no hassle. 

Order a shoulder of lamb from your butcher. Tell them how many you’re feeding and they’ll give you the right amount – none of this overbuying in the supermarket to ensure you have enough – another reason why your butcher is not a scary thing, but in fact a God send. 

Rub the lamb with salt and olive oil, then wrap it in tin foil and put it in the oven for 6 hours at about 170 degrees. what’s better is if you can put it at a lower temp and cook it for longer. If you can cook it overnight then do… obviously the longer you’re cooking it for the lower your temperature needs to be. When in the oven just forget about it. 2 hours before you want to eat put your chopped veg and potatoes in around the lamb drizzled with olive oil and everything should be ready at the same time. For roasting potatoes and gravy tips go here Roast Potatoes and Gravy.

Slow roasting meat used to be a staple, ovens not being as powerful and meat not being as plentiful meant that by cooking slowly, every single part of the animal became edible and nothing was wasted from the tongue to the tail. 

Now slow roasting is a luxury. We appear to have an excess of everything except time and being able to dedicate six hours of your life to one project unheard of. This makes me sad, especially as you don’t have to do anything in those 6 hours cooking wise (apart from your veg but this is a mere blink in the scheme of it).

I am just as guilty of shoving a sandwich down my neck barely tasting it, while walking and chatting on my mobile, however I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t feel guilty and dissatisfied afterwards. A friend of mine is a nutritionist who  said that the number of people who go to see her to combat weight gain has rocketed, even in the two years she’s been practicing, she recommended a number of tips which required not changing the food you eat, but how you eat it. 

• TAKE YOUR TIME. By taking your time to focus on your food – no telly, no other distractions apart from conversation and a drink – your brain truly acknowledges that you’ve eaten and you won’t feel hungry again until you actually are. You also start taking notice of when you feel full…
• WHEN YOU FEEL FULL, STOP EATING. There is no harm in not finishing your plate. Have the rest for lunch the next day or for supper that day, but don’t force yourself to eat more than you need to…
• PORTION SIZE DOES MATTER. If you realise that you’re always full before you’ve finished your plate then give yourself smaller portions. We overeat massively in this country, it’s gluttony more than anything else; mostly we eat because it feels good and tastes nice, not because we’re hungry and are refuelling.
• EAT LESS EAT MORE. It’s as I (or Rachel Khoo) said with the cake, if you’re making a cake then for God’s sake make a good one and enjoy it. Enjoy the piece you have and then…that’s it. Enjoy. Not then go for a hour’s run feeling guilty about the cake experience. You had a slice of cake. If you know food is high in fat/calories/salt etc just don’t have very much of it, if it’s none of the above then eat as much as you like. 
• FOOD IS NOT EVIL. It used to be that people who said they’d been really naughty at the weekend had indulged in some activity bordering on or actually being completely illegal/immoral – class A drugs, binge drinking, questionable sex, questionable sex with a questionable partner etc etc. Now it refers to breaking diets, eating donuts and eating more than you should. That’s really, really sad. That people are looking at eating as something naughty and bad. The other day I heard a woman say “I really want a donut is that wrong? Isn’t that awful” I couldn’t contain myself as I turned round and said “No it isn’t, but the fact that you’re even asking, is.” She smiled and, I like to imagine, went and and promptly ate a donut. I don’t know whether she did though. Eating a donut isn’t wrong. Eating 5 is ill advised and eating nothing else pretty dangerous, however associating food with good and bad leads you down a road that is ultimately rather depressing.
• EXERCISE. No matter what everyone is trying to tell you, you CAN’T HAVE IT ALL. If you eat more calories than you burn off you put on weight. This is simple maths and if you want to lose weight you have to exercise. If you don’t want to lose weight you have to exercise. It keeps you strong, it keeps you fit and most of all it keeps you healthy. Thin doesn’t mean healthy, you can still have high cholesterol, brittle bones, weak muscles and any of the diseases that are associated with obesity, fat doesn’t mean unhealthy either, within reason obviously. It’s lifestyle that determines that – so rather than thinking about your weight think about your lifestyle instead and make changes there first. 

So I am championing the slow food movement the basics of which are:

• Take time out of your day to eat 3 meals where you sit relax and enjoy what you’ve chosen. If this is only 20 minutes each time that’s only an hour out of your day that you’re committing and we can all manage that.
• Cook with friends, inviting people over means that it becomes a social thing and much more enjoyable even if you’re a hesitant cook, get two friends over and ask them each to bring something. Then you’ve got a grand selection and sharing is always wonderful. It also gives you an excuse to see those people you should see more of. 
• Buy a recipe book by someone you like and once a week try out something you’ve never cooked before. It’s good fun and you’re learning new skills all the time. 
• Surround yourselves with people who will appreciate your cooking, best friends and hungry boyfriends/girlfriends are always willing participants I find and, unless you totally mess up the dish and it’s inedible they will never tell you it’s rubbish because they love you.

Vivre La Resistance!