Shoulder of Lamb with Potato Tower

Method

Roast the lamb shoulder first. Place in a roasting dish, rub with garlic and stick a couple of rosemary twigs into it. Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle with water or spray it lightly then pop into an oven at 180ºC for 25 minutes per 500g so that should be 100 minutes or 1 hour 40 minutes. Remove and rest.

Meanwhile prepare all the vegetables.

Peel the potatoes and taking the largest use a peeler to shave 4 strips out of the potato as thin as possible and 2-3 cms wide. Oil a steel ring or round cutter and wrap with the potato strip, one on each. Then bake in a hot oven 200º C. Careful not to burn remove and rest when golden, Then carefully slip the ring off.

Boil the rest of the potatoes, mash and season with salt and pepper.

Peel the carrots and cut a section of carrot about 4 cms long and keep to one side. The rest chop in to chunks and cook in water until soft. Then remove and purée in a liquidizer or food processor. Return the purée to the pan and add butter, mix in well and allow to stiffen a little. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Do make sure you use ground white pepper and not ground black.

Take the celery and cut a section again about 4 cms in length and place with the carrot. The rest of the celery can be cut into batons 4 cms long and blanched in boiling water.

The leek can be cut up into dice that are 5 mm. Do the same with the reserved celery and carrot and the onion. You are trying to achieve a fine brunoise. Sweat these vegetables in butter until soft.
When the vegetables are cooked mix them into the mashed potato.

The cabbage needs to be blanched din boiling water and then plunged into boiling water before stripping out the thick stalk. Next cut the leaves to get 4 nice pieces and with the remaining cabbage shred, season and place in clusters on each of the leaves in the centres.

Place these one at a time in the centre of a clean tea towel and twist up into a ball tightly, ringing out any liquid. Place on plates, cover in cling film to keep warm.

Carve 4 evenly sized slices out of the lamb joint and keep warm, flake more of the meat and chop then mix into the mash. Press through ring moulds and warm these in the oven.

Make up the sauce using any trimmings from the meat and lamb stock. Boil up and deglaze the pan with red wine. Thicken if needs be with some cornflour.

Arrange the meat on the plate with the potato cake. Spoon on and smear the carrot purée, Top with the potato ring and the cabbage ball. Making sure everything is warm.

Finish with the sauce.