Serves 4
- 1kg salt marsh lamb shoulder
- 30 shallots, peeled and trimmed
- 12 St George’s mushrooms, whole
- 2 clove of garlic, crushed
- 1 1/2 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp chopped dill, plus extra for garnish
- 2 star anise
- 300ml red wine
- 600ml stock
- 6 sheets of filo pastry
- 25g butter, melted
- 1 bunch purple asparagus, sliced into shavings
- a couple of leaves of wild garlic, ripped into strips
- 100g pea shoots
- 6 shaved heritage carrots, sliced
- 100g micro watercress
- Zest and juice of 1 lemon
- 2 tbsp crushed capers
- 1 tbsp of ripped fresh mint or micro mint and nettles
- sea salt and black pepper
Preheat the oven to 130C/fan 110C/gas 3. Place the lamb shoulder in a deep roasting tin. Season with the garlic, sea salt and black pepper, and surround with the shallots and mushrooms. Drizzle over the honey, add the chopped dill and star anise, then pour over the red wine and stock. Cover with tine foil and cook for 5 hours, basting every hour, and removing the tin foil for the last hour and turn to 170.
Remove the lamb from the oven and turn it up to 200C/190C fan/gas 6. Pull the lamb apart into shreds with two forks and remove any bones or large pieces of fat. Cover with tin foil to keep warm.
Grease a muffin tin with butter and cut each sheet of pastry into four equal squares. Brush each square with the butter, and layer on top of each other at an angle in clusters of six until you have six stalks. Mold each into the muffin holes and bake for 6 mins, until crispy and golden (keep checking through the cooking time – your oven has been on all day, so may be a little hotter and this pastry cooks very quickly).
In a large bowl, mix together the asparagus, wild garlic, peashoots, carrots, watercress, lemon juice and zest, capers and mint, and season with pepper.
Place the pastry cups on a plate each and fill with the lamb mixture, when top with a handful of the asparagus salad. Serve immediately.
