SARAH JANE SANDERS_SMILEY PETE_RONA-14
Braising, pot roasting — same thing: cooking slowly in a covered pot with some liquids that slowly turn into sauce. Expect deep flavors and utterly tender bites. For best results, choose excellent pastured Kentucky lamb like Four Hills Farm’s mild Katahdin breed. Allow at least six hours for prepping, cooking, and finishing this dish, and plan on your house smelling good enough to eat as the braising bubbles along.
Yield: One 4-5 pound shoulder roast, bone-in, serves 8-10 people generously
Select the right pot.
Before you unwrap the lamb shoulder, find a deep, heavy pot with a nicely fitted, oven-proof lid that will hold the lamb easily and leave plenty of room for about seven cups of vegetables.
Season the shoulder:
Sprinkle the lamb all over, generously, with kosher or sea salt and freshly ground pepper.
Brown the shoulder:
In two tablespoons olive oil, over medium heat, brown the lamb on all sides. This can take 30 minutes or more.
Move the lamb out of the pot, onto a plate, and let it rest.
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
Brown the vegetables:
Add these vegetables and ingredients to the fat in the pot, turn up the heat a little, and cook about 10 minutes, until the edges of the vegetables begin to brown. Stir often.
2 coarsely chopped carrots
2 coarsely chopped celery stalks
1 coarsely chopped onion
25 lightly crushed fresh garlic cloves
4 stems fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons whole black peppercorns
Add to the pot, and cook five minutes:
2 cups chopped, peeled tomatoes, fresh, frozen, or canned
1 cup red wine
2 teaspoons Kentucky sorghum
2 dashes aromatic bitters, like Angostura or Scrappy’s
More salt and pepper
Return the lamb to the pot:
Clear vegetables away from the center of the pot, if needed, to make room for the lamb.
Add broth and bring back to a simmer:
4-8 cups unsalted chicken stock: use enough to reach about halfway up the shoulder
Cover and braise:
Braise — cook, covered, in the oven — for 4 1/2 to 5 hours. The bones should easily pull out of the shoulder and the flesh should feel meltingly tender if poked (lightly) with a fork.
Remove the lamb to a platter; cover lightly with foil to keep it moist.
Make sauce:
Set a large strainer over a clean, large, wide pot or skillet. Pour the sauce and vegetables into the strainer, capturing all the juices. Use the back of a serving spoon or wooden spoon to press as many vegetables as possible through the strainer into the liquid. Discard the vegetables and herbs that remain in the strainer.
Cook the sauce gently until it is reduced to about three cups liquid. It will thicken slightly, but it is not intended to be a thick sauce.
Taste for seasoning; add salt and pepper as needed.
Garnish and serve (or store):
Pull out all bones from the lamb shoulder.
Slice the lamb as thickly or thinly as you like.
Arrange the slices on a platter or casserole dish.
Spoon the sauce over all.
Either cover and chill for reheating later (325 degrees for 30 minutes), or …
Garnish with freshly chopped mint, parsley, or other herbs of your choice, and serve