Shoulder of lamb braised with garlic, olive oil and eggplant

By: Adrian Richardson
From: Meat
Serves: 6
Photographer: Dean Cambray

This is a really popular dish at La Luna Bistro. I find diners love the way the long, slow cooking makes the lamb all sticky and garlicky. Don’t be tempted to skimp on the oil; it really is a key component of the dish. When extra-virgin olive oil is called for in a recipe such as this, I always use the best quality I can find. If you’re just using it for frying, when most of the oil will be tipped out, then you can use a slightly cheaper one.

I often make this dish using whole baby lamb, or sometimes capretto, which are two-week-old baby goats. As is the case here, the meat is chopped into chunks on the bone before cooking.

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient
2 x 1kg	forequarter lamb legs, chopped through the bone at 4 cm intervals to give 12 pieces
1 tablespoon	salt
1 tablespoon	freshly ground black pepper
1 cup	extra-virgin olive oil
12	garlic cloves
1/4 cup	fresh rosemary leaves, (discard the stalks)
2	medium onions,, cut into 1 cm dice
2	carrots, cut into 1 cm dice
2 sticks	celery, cut into 1 cm dice
1 cup	basil leaves
2	large eggplants, (around 700 g total weight), cut into 2 cm dice
2 cups	white wine
1 litre	lamb or chicken stock
1/2 cup	chopped parsley to serve

Method

Preheat the oven to 160ºC. Season the meat with salt and pepper.
Heat the oil in a large casserole dish. Add the lamb pieces and sauté over a medium heat until they colour a light golden brown. Transfer the sealed lamb pieces to a plate and keep warm.
Lower the heat and add the garlic cloves and rosemary to the pan. Leave to sweat gently for a few minutes, until soft but not coloured. Add the diced onion, carrot, celery and basil and sweat gently for 2–3 minutes. Add the diced eggplant and sweat for a further 4–5 minutes, stirring from time to time. Return the lamb pieces to the casserole and pour on the wine and enough of the stock to cover. Increase the heat and bring to a gentle simmer. Cover the casserole and cook in the oven for 2–2½ hours, or until the meat is very tender and comes away from the bone.
Stir in the parsley and serve with wedges of Nonno’s Cake or couscous.

Tags:: Meat; Adrian; Richardson; La; Luna

Shoulder of lamb braised with garlic, olive oil and eggplant

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