Warm Shredded Lamb Salad With Mint and Pomegranate
- 1 (2 1/2 kg) lamb shoulder
- 4 shallots, halved but not peeled
- 6 garlic cloves, left whole
- 1 carrot, peeled and halved
- salt
- 500 ml boiling water
- of fresh mint, chopped
- 1 pomegranate
- vegetables, to serve
- Preheat the oven to 140C/ gas mark 1.
- On the hob, brown the lamb, fat side down, in a large roasting tin.
- Remove when nicely browned in the middle (you won't get much more than this) and set aside while you fry the vegetables briefly.
- Just tip them into the pan - you won't need to add any more fat - and cook them, sprinkled with salt, gently for a couple of minutes.
- Pour the water over and then replace the lamb, this time fat side up.
- Let the liquid in the pan come to a bubble, then tent with foil and put in the preheated oven.
- Now just leave it there while you sleep.
- I find that if I put the lamb in before I go to bed, it's perfect by lunchtime the next day.
- But the point is, at this temperature, nothing's going to go wrong with the lamb if you cook it for a little less or a little more.
- If you want to cook the lamb the day you're going to eat it, heat the oven to 170C/ gas mark 3 and give it 5 hours or so.
- The point is to find a way of cooking that suits you.
- About an hour before you want to eat, remove the lamb from the tin to a large plate or carving board; not that it needs carving: the deal here is that it's unfashionably overcooked, falling to tender shreds at the touch of a fork.
- This is the best way to deal with shoulder of lamb: it's cheaper than leg, and the flavour is deeper, better, truer, but even good carvers, which I most definitely am not, can get unstuck trying to slice it.
- I get on with the vegetables while the lamb's sitting meekly, but you could equally well have done this earlier.
- But to finish the lamb salad, simply pull it to pieces with a couple forks on a large plate.
- Sprinkle with more salt and some freshly chopped mint, then cut the pomegranate in half and dot with the seeds from one of the halves.
- This is easily done; there's a simple trick, which means you never have to think of winkling out the jewelled pips with a safety pin ever again.
- Simply hold the pomegranate half above the plate, take a wooden spoon and start bashing the curved skin side with it.
- Nothing will happen for a few seconds, but have faith.
- In a short while the red glassy, juicy beads will start raining down.
- Take the other half and squeeze the preposterously pink juices over the warm shredded meat.
- Take to the table and serve.
lamb shoulder, shallots, garlic, carrot, salt, fresh mint, pomegranate, vegetables
Taken from www.food.com/recipe/warm-shredded-lamb-salad-with-mint-and-pomegranate-226119 (may not work)