Hugh's Slow-Roast Shoulder of Lamb with Merguez Spices

By Helen
Main ingredients:

• Shoulder of lamb
• Spice mix: cumin, coriander, paprika, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, black pepper, fennel, garlic, rosemary and oil
• Butternut squash
• Savoy cabbage

After last week's 30-minute marvel, I decided to take advantage of the Bank Holiday and cook something from the other end of the timescale.

Although the sight of a dinner-plate sized chunk of lamb was a little intimidating, I wrestled the thing home and made a start. After slashing the skin and rubbing in the mixed spice goop, the lamb was roasted for half an hour and then slow-cooked under foil at a much lower temperature.

As always with H F-W's recipes, the timings and weights are pretty flexible - he recommended a staggering six hours of slowcooking but our shoulder was falling off the bone after four and a half. In fact I didn't need to carve it at all, just pull out the three clean bones and slice up the remainder.

The mix of spices was warming and aromatic but surprisingly subtle after the long roast - I wimped out of spooning any of the juices back over it as they seemed to be mostly fat but I'm sure they were delicious too. We served this with buttery Savoy cabbage and butternut squash roasted with chilli, more rosemary and garlic (from the same book). To be honest this could have been more exciting - maybe by chucking in more chilli - but I'm a fan of squash anyway and it made a lovely colourful accompaniment.

As we already owned pretty much all the spices, the raw ingredients came out relatively cheap. The lamb fed four of us with plenty left over for sandwiches, meaning a per-head cost of only £2.35, although this doesn't include the cost of running the oven for most of the day.

Best for... A winter's evening after a long day out in the cold - giving you plenty of opportunity to walk back in and and appreciate the glorious smell.
Taken from... Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - River Cottage Every Day
Chris says... I am ill. So ill. The lamb smelt amazing when it was cooking, but I lost my appetite and only ate half of it. Fortunately, I'll get to eat it all week, so here's hoping I recover before we run out of lamb...