Slow-Cooked Lamb Shoulder in Mustard Oil with Barley and Olive Cassoulet

by Ed Halmagyi

Ingredients

  • 1 lamb shoulder, approx. 1.6kg
  • 1 tsp celery seeds
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds, cracked
  • 1 tsp fennel seeds, cracked
  • sea salt flakes and freshly-ground black pepper
  • 2 Tbsp mustard seed oil
  • 8 sticks celery
  • 2 leeks, finely diced
  • ½ head fennel finely diced
  • 8 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tsp capers, chopped
  • 2 sprigs rosemary, chopped
  • 75g ghee
  • 1 cup pearl barley
  • 3 cups chicken stock
  • 1 Tbsp seeded mustard
  • 1 cup mixed olives, diced
  • 4 cups baby spinach leaves
  • 1 bunch parsley leaves

Instructions

1 Preheat oven to 200°C. Rub the shoulder with spices and season generously with salt and pepper. Rub with mustard seed oil. Arrange the celery sticks in the bottom of a roasting pan, place the lamb on top, then bake for 20 minutes. Add 2 cups water, cover with foil, reduce heat to 150°C, then cook for a further 3 hours, until tender.
2 Sauté the leeks, fennel, garlic, capers and rosemary in ghee in a medium saucepan over a moderate heat for 5 minutes, then add the barley, stock, mustard and olives and simmer fro 30 minutes, until the barley is tender. Fold in the spinach and parsley, then serve with the lamb.