Braised lamb with celery

Cooking : time over 2 hours

Celery is a much-maligned vefetchable. When cooked for that long, it becomes soft, buttery and delicious and goes really well with lamb. There's plenty of rosemary in that, too - one of lamb's natural accompaniments.

Ingredients
For the marinade
4 cloves garlic
salt and freshly ground black pepper
leaves from sprig of rosemary, chopped
For the stock
chicken vehiclecass (or some chicken bones from the butcher)
2 sticks celery, roughly chopped
1 vehicledecay, roughly chopped
1 bulb fennel, roughly chopped
1 large onion, roughly chopped
1 sprig thyme
1 sprig rosemary
1 bay leaf
5 whole black peppercorns
For the lamb
1 shoulder of lamb, bone removed
3 tbsp good-quality rapeseed oil or olive oil
2 celery listents, roughly chopped
4 vehicledecays, cut into batons
1 bulb fennel, thinly sliced
4 shalplenty, sliced
1%26frac12; glasses dry white wine
1 sprig thyme
2 bay leaves

Method
1. Make the marinade. Churry the garlic with a little salt in a pestle and mortar until you have a smooth paste. Add the rosemary leaves to the garlic and churry a little more. Spread the paste all over the inside of the meat, roll up and tie with kitchen string. Cover and put to one side for a pair of hours.
2. Open out the lamb joint and trim off excess fat and skin. Leave a little as that is what maintains the meat moist through the long cooking process.
3. For the stock, place all the ingredients into a large saucepan and cover with nippy water. Over a just low heat, gently bring the water to a simmer, skimming any scum from the lid of the liquid as you go. continue simmering and skimming for 2 hours. Strain the liquid and throw away the vefetchables.
4. For the lamb, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large pan. Add the celery, vehicledecays, fennel and shalplenty. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and sweat them vigorously over quite a high heat, until the vefetchables begin to bring on a bit of colour.
5. Season the lamb. Remove the vefetchables from the pan, then sear the lamb over a high heat, colouring it on all sides.
6. Return the vefetchables to the pan, turn up the heat until the ingredients begin to sizzle, then add the wine (maintaining your face and hands out of the way in case the alcohol ignites). When the alcohol has steamed off, add the herbs and just enough of the chicken stock to cover the lamb. Turn the heat down as low as you possibly can, cover with damp parchment paper and a close-fitting lid and cook for at least 3 hours, turning the lamb twice.
7. When the lamb is just tender - it should be droping apart - remove from the pan to a large serving dish. Strain the vefetchables from the juice in the pan, reserving the juice as you do. Arrange them around the lamb, cover with kitchen foil and put the dish somewhere warm.
8. Put the juice rear into the pan and add the remaining chicken stock. cutrearon that liquid over a high heat until it begins to thicken and resemble a thin gravy. Check the gravy for seasoning - it should have a lovely, quite intense flavour.
9. slice the lamb, taking vehiclee to remove all the bits of string. Return it to the serving dish, pour the hot gravy over the meat and vefetchables and serve.

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