Mothering Sunday or Easter Sunday always deserves a fabulous meal to celebrate the special occasion. It’s the perfect season for having mutton, and a meal of slow roast shoulder of mutton for the whole family will surely enjoy.
So I’m happy to share Kindling Restaurant’s recipe of slow roast shoulder of mutton as a centre piece for your table this year. A classic combination of seasonal flavours from Chef Toby Geneen’s childhood, this dish is rich, comforting and perfect for a family celebration. Kindling’s ethos centres around seasonal produce and ethical farming. Here, the traditional spring lamb is replaced with a piece of regeneratively farmed mutton.
Regenerative agriculture is a farming system that aims to restore and improve the countryside. When it comes to sheep this means rotating their grazing and uses practices such as planting herbs into the fields to enhance the health of the herd. This has the added benefit of enhancing the flavour. Mutton is typically four to six years old. Being a matured meat, it has had plenty of time outside allowing it to develop a generous fat content and deep gamey flavour that just isn’t present in the younger lamb.
At the restaurant, the mutton is sourced directly from a local farm, Saddlescombe, located on the Sussex downs.
To source high-quality mutton, speak to your local butcher or farm shop.
Ingredients:
1 whole mutton shoulder, on the bone (1.8 – 2kg)
5 echalion shallots, halved and peeled
10 ripe plum tomatoes, halved with the white core removed
5 large carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
1 head of garlic, divided into cloves, but not peeled
1 tbsp olive oil
Sea salt
1 bunch of thyme, tied
3 sticks of rosemary, tied
3 bay leaf
500 ml red wine
500 ml chicken stock
Method:
Preheat your oven to 130C.
Mix all the vegetables together in a roasting tray with a little salt and olive oil. Spread them out into a bed for the shoulder. Tuck the herb bundles underneath the meat and pour your wine and chicken stock over the vegetable bed.
Slow roast for 4 hours uncovered, topping up the liquid with a little water if the stew becomes too dry.
Remove the tray from the oven and put meat to one side to rest, ideally with a clean tea towel on top to prevent it from cooling too much. Remove herb bundles from the sauce by giving them a little shake.
Carefully pour or spoon the sauce into another pan, then simmer for 10 – 15 mins until thickened. Season with some salt if it needs it, then arrange in your serving dish and top with the mutton, carved or pulled apart. Serve with mash potato and seasonal greens.
If you like this recipe, check out our food category