The Perfect...

Slow-cooked lamb

Your cut-out-and-keep guide to the fundamentals of cooking

People tend to eat lamb only in spring, the same way they only eat turkey at Christmas, but lamb is good all year round.

Shoulder of lamb is a great cut for a dish like this that requires long cooking. Shoulder is a tougher cut, but it becomes beautifully tender when it is done slowly.

The only way you can go wrong with this dish is to cook it for too short a time. That’s how you end up with tough or stringy lamb. A half-hour over won’t hurt, but don’t cut the time short.

Also, be generous with the wine. Always cook with a bottle of wine that you’d be prepared to drink. A wine that isn’t good enough to drink, isn’t good enough to cook with.

You can serve this with roasted vegetables — two carrots, two parsnips, one celeriac, roasted with 100ml of honey at 180°C, 356°F, Gas 4.

I also like it with a creamy mash with some finely chopped curly parsley with it.