I haven’t been so excited about a meal for a long time. Truly, this tender lamb shoulder, cooked low and slow, then finished in a hot oven, baked with fluffy homemade gnocchi, a creamy pea sauce, and a blankie of golden breadcrumbs – it’s just so, so good. And yes, it takes some time, but it’s time well spent. And much of it is hands-off.
For dessert, let’s have little glasses of bright pink rhubarb and sparkling wine jelly with a pillow of vanilla cream.
In this cooking class, we cover how to make the slow-cooked lamb shoulder braise, how to make gnocchi (and some lovely serving suggestions in addition to this recipe), how to make a beautiful rhubarb jelly and as many ideas and cooking tips as I can squeeze in as we go.
The lamb recipe was inspired by one from Saturday Table (one of my favourite food newsletters); in this one, lamb mince is used instead of shoulder, which makes it a much faster recipe.
Use the leftover rhubarb compote to spoon over porridge or yogurt (delicious with a few shards of the granola clumps we made last month).
And if you're not pumped about making the gnocchi, buy some fresh from the shops. Or perhaps stir in cooked (al dente) short pasta?
Or skip the gnocchi bit entirely and spoon the braised lamb over a bed of mash or polenta. Sprinkle with toasted breadcrumbs.
You can also make this in individual gratin dishes.
Or turn this into a pie – top the braised lamb with puff pastry instead of gnocchi and breadcrumbs.
You could also pop in some asparagus spears and broad beans with the peas.
For the jellies, I used a sparkling wine from Skimstone Wines in Mudgee; its delicious pink colour and flavour worked beautifully with the rhubarb. But you could swap in prosecco or sparkling mineral water if you’d like it to be alcohol-free.
This is not a speedy dinner; it won't be ready in under 30 minutes. And that’s part of what makes it so good. This is a menu to make when you have a quiet morning or afternoon (I know they are rare!) to potter around the kitchen, coming and going between stirring, browning, chopping, straining, kneading, and baking. There’s plenty of ‘in between time’ to go and do nice things like read a book with a coffee or send emails or whatever you need or want to do.
The actual hands-on time to make this meal is about one hour plus prep time. But give yourself more so there’s no pressure and no rushing. And if you want the general flavour vibe here but don’t have time to do it all, take the shortcuts!
I was listening to Elizabeth Strout’s The Things We Never Say between clips. Highly recommend.
Ok, so here are the recipes, pasted below but also in a downloadable PDF, along with a separate one with the shopping, prep and gear list.
I love to think that you might cook this along ‘with me ’, stopping and starting the video as needed, calmly moving through each step until we finish with a delicious meal to share.
Thank you and see you next week!
Sophie
Ps - If there’s anything you’d like me to do for next month, please send through suggestions.
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