A slow affair, this lamb dish is cooked until the meat is falling off the bone and pared with bittersweet endives
I am particularly fond of a braised, small joint of meat cooked with whole endives. Pork is possibly my favourite choice, especially with sage and much garlic to infuse meagre, though intense, savoury cooking juices. But here we are at Eastertide, when it would seem perverse not to go down the Pascal route. Please don’t waste a cut of ruinously expensive tender spring lamb here, even if available, for this is a slow affair, with the meat close to falling away from the bone, once ready to eat; save spring cuts for a little later, say late May, when both its cost has somewhat diminished, a touch more flavour has further emerged and, whichever joint preferred, should be cooked pink.
I have, in the past, found much favour with an albeit fatty, boned and rolled breast of lamb (and so cheap), particularly when smothered by its weight of copious sliced onions; no liquid required, simply the exuded sweet moisture of the allium. But here, for Easter, I think the cut needs a nudge upwards. I have chosen half a shoulder of lamb, about 1kg and, preferably, the half that accommodates the blade rather than the more difficult remainder, the knuckle part, so tedious to tackle and carve.
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