Lamb shoulder with herbs and preserved lemons

Instructions

1. Step 1

   Preheat the oven to 200°C fan

2. Step 2

   Put all the ingredients (bar a handful of soft herbs and the lamb) into a food processor, add ½ tsp salt and blitz them up into a paste. Cover the lamb with it. If you can leave it in the marinade overnight, all the better, but if you don’t have time, it is ready to be baked straight away

3. Step 3

   Put the lamb and marinade into a cast-iron pan and cover it with a lid. Otherwise, especially if you are using a shoulder, you can also use a roasting tin and cover it tightly with a foil tent (just use 2 large pieces of foil and tent them over the meat without touching it). Cook for 30 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 160°C fan and cook for another 2 hours. Then lift the lid or foil off and have a look. The meat should be soft and coming away from the bone. If it is not quite there, cover it again and put it back in for another 30 minutes. Be careful not to dry out the lamb and keep checking, as a shoulder can take up to 3½ hours

4. Step 4

   Take the lamb out of the oven, cover and rest in its juices for at least 20 minutes

5. Step 5

   Pull the meat off the bone, discard the bones and large bits of fat, roughly shred larger pieces, then return to the tin. Taste, it may need a light sprinkling of salt

6. Step 6

   If the lamb has been resting a while, you can pop it and the juices in the roasting tin under a hot grill to warm through and crisp up the meat on top

7. Step 7

   You can shred the lamb and mix it with the juices up to a day before and keep in the fridge, then just reheat in a lidded pan with a splash of water mixed in, or in a foil baking tray, before serving. Serve with any plain grain you fancy, or even crushed boiled potatoes, sprinkling over the reserved herbs