Remember to remove your lamb shoulder out of the packaging, pat
dry and bring to room temperature.
Pre heat your oven to 200°C temperature fan assisted or 215°C
without a fan.
Season the lamb shoulder just prior to roasting.
Choose a large, heavy based roasting tray, ideally with deep
sides and handles for easy movement.
Massage a little goose or duck fat or a light olive oil if the
lamb shoulder does not have a generous coating of fat then season
with good quality fine sea salt.
Make a trivet by roughly chopping equal amounts of onion,
carrot and celery or my preferred choice of celeriac, the root of
the celery plus a bay leaf, sprig of thyme and a few black
peppercorns, another nice addition can be a head of garlic split in
half.
Place the lamb shoulder skin side up onto the trivet which
should line the base of the tray.
Place in centre of oven and roast for 20 minutes then reduce
the temperature to 190°C then continue roasting for 30 minutes per
500g reaching a core temperature of minimum 58°C.
Alternatively add half a bottle of white wine and the same of
water to the tray and pot roast after the initial 20 minute roast
by covering with tin foil and cooking o 140°C for 5 to 6 hours nice
and slow, ensure the meat comes away from the bone easily if using
this method.
Remove the lamb shoulder from the oven and pop onto a clean
tray and keep warm by covering with a sheet of tin foil then
resting for a minimum of 20 minutes before carving, leaving the
roasted vegetables in the tray for the gravy.
For the gravy I make up 500 ml of essential cuisine lamb stock,
then deglaze roasting tray with this stock stirring all the
caramelized juices from the tray, then pass through a fine sieve
pushing all the juices from the vegetables into a clean sauce pan,
bring to the simmer and thicken if required by whisking in a
teaspoon of corn flour mixed with a little cold water and reduce
till you reach a rich glossy gravy.