A message from Chef Jason Laurin of Essence Catering.
‘If you’re as old or older than I am, you’ve likely eaten all the turkey and hams you can handle. For Easter, I now look to lamb to feed a crowd.
Here is a lamb recipe that largely cooks itself, has a sauce you can make ahead and you don’t really need to worry about overcooking it. For me, that’s a winner every time. Throw in your favorite side, be it mashed potatoes or glazed carrots, and you have a meal that is sure to wow everyone at the table.
All the ingredients are fairly easy to find.
The lamb shoulder you can find at that place with the huge parking spots.
Pomegranate is a fruit I wish more people used. And after making this sauce, I’m sure you’ll find yourself buying it more often.
The most exotic item is the preserved lemons, which you can find jarred in most fine food gourmet shops. They’re great to have in your pantry to punch up the flavours of marinades, as in this recipe. But also in sauces and salsas of all kinds.
Ingredients:
Roasted Lamb
Start with a 5lb bone-in lamb shoulder. Note: If you buy boneless, it will usually be wrapped in netting. It just makes getting the marinade all over a bit harder. But don’t pass up on the recipe for this reason.
5 oz preserved lemon quarters.
15 cloves of garlic (peeled)
3 tbsp rosemary
1 tbsp thyme leaves
a few sprigs of parsley
3 tbsp olive oil
750 ml chicken stock
Salt and pepper
Pomegranate Pesto
1 cup pomegranate arils (yes, the store with the huge parking spots sells them already peeled and seeded. But feel free to do this yourself. It’s quite therapeutic.
1 cup parsley, chopped. (Don’t worry too much about stems here. Just get rid of the thick ones.)
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp pomegranate molasses (available at fine food stores and most grocery stores)
1/2 cup good olive oil
1/4 to 1/2 cup grated parmesan (depending on how thick you like your pestos)
Salt and pepper
Lamb Recipe:
Start the day before Easter.
In a blender add the preserved lemons, herbs, garlic and olive oil. Blitz.
Scored your lamb. You can do a diamond pattern or just lines around the whole shoulder. Whichever you feel comfortable with.
Pour the marinade over and work it into the score marks you just made.
Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper and cover with plastic wrap in the fridge overnight.
The next day, remove the lamb from the fridge about an hour before cooking.
Set the oven to 300 degrees.
Pour about 2 cups of broth in the bottom of your roasting pan. Place lamb over top, cover with foil and roast for about 2 hours.
At the 2-hour point, check to make sure it has not gone dry in the pan. Add more broth if needed. Return to the oven for another 2 or so hours uncovered.
You’re looking for fork-tender.
In the last 2 hours, you can baste the lamb with the pan juices. When you have a fork-tender shoulder, remove it from the oven and tent with foil to rest at least 30 minutes.
Pomegranate Pesto Recipe:
While the lamb cooks make the pesto.
Put the garlic, herbs and olive oil in a blender or Cuisinart.
Blitz until smooth and pour into a bowl.
Add the pomegranate arils, molasses and parmesan. Stir to mix well.
Taste and add salt and pepper.
***This will keep for about 5 days in the fridge. And it goes well on many things.
Serve the lamb with the pesto on the side.
As I said above. Add your favorite side dish and you have a really great new Easter dinner tradition.
For some recipe suggestions for sides, such as glazed carrots and roasted garlic mash, Check out www.essencecatering.ca.
You might even find a recipe for individual pavlovas with lemon curd and whipped mascarpone to leave your family or guests thinking this was the best Easter dinner ever!
