12-hour lamb with smoky aubergine
If it’s cold and blustery by the coast, this will warm you up. Prepare it the night before for lunch the next day or get up early and cook it through the day for a midsummer’s eve feast.
Serves 8
1 × 2.5kg shoulder of lamb 10 garlic cloves, peeled 2 tsp ground cumin ¼ tsp ground cinnamon 1 tbsp nigella seeds 2 star anise 4 cloves 3 red onions, unpeeled and halved 1 tbsp olive oil 150g pomegranate seeds
for the smoky aubergines
4 large aubergines, left whole Juice of 1 lemon 1 tbsp white wine vinegar 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 1 red onion, finely diced 2 red chillies, deseeded and finely diced Bunch of mint, leaves finely shredded 1 heaped tsp fine sea salt Poppy seeds, to sprinkle
1 Preheat oven to 110C/Fan 90C/Gas ¼ (as low as possible). Put the lamb on a large chopping board. Pierce slits in it with the tip of a sharp knife and insert a whole garlic clove into each one. Sprinkle a good amount of salt and pepper over the top. Sprinkle over the cumin, cinnamon and nigella and rub well into the skin.
2 Put the onion halves in a deep roasting tin, with the star anise and cloves. Carefully lay the lamb on top – this prevents the underneath crisping up too much. Drizzle over the oil.
3 Cover the whole tin tightly with foil and roast in the oven for roughly 12 hours or until tender. Remove from oven and set aside, under foil.
4 To make the marinated aubergine, preheat oven to 240C/Fan 220C/Gas 9. Heat a large heavy-based frying pan over a high heat. Add the aubergines and cook them, turning occasionally, until softening all over.
5 Transfer them to a baking tray and cook them in the oven for 45 mins. After 35 mins of cooking, put the cooked lamb back into the oven with the aubergines, uncovered, to crisp up for the last 10 mins. Serve warm with a ewe’s cheese salad.*
6 Once the aubergines are ready, let them cool for a few minutes, then peel them, keeping them whole and retaining the stalks at the top to hold them together. Lay them out on a serving plate. The flesh will be falling apart, so open them out a little so that they lie flat.
7 Put the lemon juice, vinegar, oil, onion, chillies and mint in a bowl and season with the salt. Spoon this marinade over the split aubergines and sprinkle with the poppy seeds.
8 Remove the lamb from the roasting tin and shred from the bone into a dish. Put the pomegranate seeds into a small bowl for sprinkling over the lamb. Lay the components out on the table so people help themselves.