Mutton: Confit Shoulder of Mutton with Pommes Anna
CONFIT SHOULDER OF MUTTON WITH POMMES ANNA
Barney Haughton, chef at Quartier Vert, Bristol, shares this recipe for a flavoursome mutton dish.
Ingredients (serves 20)
1 shoulder and 1 breast of lamb
Stock vegetables
Coarse sea salt
Shallots, parsley, rosemary & cloves for the marinade
Chestnut mushrooms
White onions
Potatoes
This is a brilliant way of using two cheap cuts of mutton. It ends up as a kind of lasagne/pot roast. You need to bone out the shoulder and trim it of excess fat, reserving bones for stock and fat. Trim the excess fat off the breast as well.
Method
3-4 days in advance
1 Make a good stock of the roasted bones, celery, carrots, onion, rosemary, garlic, thyme and bay and reduce to a fine jelly.
2 Make a mix of 1kg coarse sea salt, 2 sprigs chopped rosemary, 10 chopped shallots, big bunch parsley chopped and about 6 chopped cloves.
3 Spread about a third of this mixture on a deep tray big enough to spread the shoulder meat out on top of the salt mix. Cover the shoulder meat with another third of the salt mix and lay the breast on top. Spread the last of the mix on top and cover with greaseproof paper and a clean tea-towel. Leave overnight in a cool place - ideally not the fridge but in a larder (5ºC).
4 In the morning, inverse the layers of meat - ie, breast under shoulder (this is to get an even cure throughout the meat). Re-cover and leave for another 12 hours (total curing is 36 hours).
5 Clean off all the salt and other marinade ingredients
under running cold water and pat dry.
6 In a very low oven, (about 110°F), render down the fat, strain and leave to set.
Day 2: Making the confit
1 As with a duck confit, the mutton needs to be cooked in fat. This should be a combination of duck fat and lamb fat or lamb fat and olive oil. The melted fat needs to cover the meat.
2 Cook very slowly - in a casserole with the lid on - in the oven at 120°F for about three hours.
3 Remove and strain off all the fat, putting the meat to one side.
4 When cool enough to handle, shred the meat removing all fat and sinew with your hands.
Assembling the Pommes Anna
1 In a little oil soften 3 medium-sized, diced onions and 500g sliced chestnut mushrooms.
2 Add to the shredded meat and combine with pepper, finely chopped rosemary needles and enough mutton stock to make the mixture a stiff porridge consistency.
3 Reserve the remaining stock for gravy.
4 Peel and slice 16 medium-sized potatoes.
5 Grease a roasting tray, add a layer of potatoes.
6 Build up layers of meat mix and potatoes lasagne-style. There will be six or seven layers.
7 Finish with the top layer of potatoes just proud of the edge of the roasting tray.
8 Bake for about 50 minutes at 185°F or until potatoes are cooked.
9 Make a gravy with the remaining stock, white wine and some balsamic vinegar.
10 Serve with cabbage and carrots.
