Chef Jenny Chandler’s favourite recipe – but if you want it for lunch you would prepare it the previous night and put it in the oven very early morning:
“I always feel that beans are misunderstood, presumed to be best only for vegetarian dishes, but in fact they soak up meat juices like nothing else,” says food writer and cookery-school tutor Jenny Chandler.
“A long-cooking meat dish is great for this, and as much as I like pink lamb, I prefer to slow-cook it when I’m entertaining, especially as it produces all this juice for the beans to soak up. At this time of year it’s nice to have some green beans, too, for colour and texture. You don’t need to make any gravy with this, so it makes an ideal one-pot, no-faff Sunday roast.”
Cooking time:7 hours 30 minutes
Serves four to six
2 tbsp olive oil
1 1.8kg (4lb) shoulder of lamb
2 onions, diced
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp finely chopped rosemary
½ bottle dry white wine
Salt and pepper
700g (1lb 9oz) home-cooked or 3 x 400g (14oz) cans of flageolet beans
3 leeks, sliced roughly
250g (9oz) green beans, topped but not tailed
2 tbsp roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley
Dash of balsamic vinegar
Preheat the oven to 325F/170C/Gas 3.
Heat the oil in a large, deep roasting pan or a large cast-iron cooking pot over a high heat and sear the lamb until brown all over. Add the onions, garlic, rosemary, wine and a little salt and pepper. Cover with a well-fitting lid or cover the whole pan carefully with foil (you want to create a steamy environment for the meat to cook in). Roast the lamb for three hours and then turn the oven down to 275F/140C/Gas 1 and cook for another four hours.
About an hour before serving, remove the pan from the oven and skim off any excess fat. Taste the lamb juices and season with salt and pepper. Add the beans and leeks to the pan, replace the lid or foil, and cook for the remaining time. There should be plenty of liquid for the vegetables to soak up, but do add a little stock or water if it seems dry.
Remove the pan from the oven, lift out the meat and set aside to rest for a few minutes while you steam or boil the green beans until just tender. Add the fresh beans to the flageolets, season well and add the parsley.
You should now be able to break up the tender lamb with a fork. Spoon the beans onto individual plates, and top with the lamb. Add a dash of balsamic vinegar – you need a bit of acidity – and serve.
‘Pulse’ by Jenny Chandler is published by Pavilion (£25)
