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This started off as an attempt to make kleftiko, the famous Greek dish
of slow-cooked lamb and bay. But it ended up nothing like it, or at least
nothing like the wonderful kleftiko at the Eraina Taverna, Free School
Lane, Cambridge.
Jack Spratt's Shoulder Of Lamb
| blade half | shoulder of lamb |
| 4oz | plain flour (preferably “strong” flour) |
| 2 | eggs |
| about 4fl oz | milk |
| 1 small | onion |
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Prepare the half-shoulder: make two or three deep cuts in each side,
top to bottom and as far as the bone. Try to slice through parts where the
fat is thickest; try not to cut too close to the ends. |
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Lay the half-shoulder fat side down on a wire shelf at the top of the
oven; put a very heatproof dish, large enough to catch any fat dripping off,
underneath it at the bottom of the oven
(I use this large Denby dish.)
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Roast at 160°C / 320°F for 1¼ hours. Meanwhile, make the
Yorkshire pudding batter: sift the flour into a bowl, make a well in the
middle, and break the eggs into it. Add a splash of milk, and mix steadily
until all the flour is incorporated, adding further splashes of milk as
necessary to keep the mixture about the consistency of cream. You might not
need all 4oz of milk. Add a pinch of salt.
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Chop the onion finely. When the 1¼ hours is up, tip the chopped
onion into the heatproof dish, which will by now have a layer of sizzlingly
hot lamb dripping. Turn the oven up to 190°C / 370°F. Wait until
it's got
to temperature, and the onion is sizzling nicely in the dripping, and then
pour the
pudding batter into the dish. Don't be too hasty to do this, or too slow
about it when you do, as getting the
batter hot quickly is important to its rising.
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Half-an-hour later, take the lamb out, cover it with tinfoil to keep warm,
and turn the oven right up to 210°C / 410°F for a final fifteen
minutes to crisp the top of the pudding.
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Slice the lamb from the bone, and serve with a big piece of the Yorkshire
pudding (go on, it's lighter than it looks, it's mostly air).
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Jack Spratt, says the nursery rhyme, would eat no fat; his wife would eat no
lean. They'd be the ideal couple for this recipe: Jack would find that the slow
cooking had melted almost all the fat out of the (otherwise rather fatty) lamb
joint, and Mrs Spratt would find that the fat in question hadn't been wasted
and had all contributed to the taste of the Yorkshire pudding.
 The shoulder of lamb serves two;
the Yorkshire pudding serves four, but that's fine because the same two can
have it cold at another meal, when it's still delicious. If you've got a
big enough dish to go underneath, you could try this with a whole shoulder
to feed four.
It's just a shame that the Atkins
diet proscribes carbohydrates, and thus flour -- it would otherwise be your
only hope for considering this dish at all healthy. Oh well.
 All Rites Reversed -- Copy What You
Like
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