Shoulder of Lamb a la Boulangere

May 4, 2004

The Spouse returned from a trip to Australia earlier this year with a fairly substantial piece of literature in his luggage. He'd bought me a copy of Culinaria France, a beautiful cookbook celebrating the regional cuisines of France (ISBN 3-8290-2019-8).

This book weighs in at something like 3 kilos so it isn't exactly the sort of book to tuck in your cabin bag. Nor is it designed for bedtime reading. However, being a dedicated tooth man, The Spouse must have been seduced by the beautiful photos and the delightful recipes because he cheerfully lugged the book home. This is a book that calls for a spacious table for browsing.

I happened to have a boned out shoulder of lamb the other day so I thought I would flip the pages and look for a recipe.

I came across L'epaule d'agneau de Paulliac, rotie boulangere - a shoulder of lamb cooked baker's style. I think this is probably one of those recipes that comes from the days when not everyone had an oven and so a dish would be taken along to the baker's and put in his oven after he had finished his bread baking.

This is a nice rustic dish that is easy to prepare - particularly if you have a mandoline for slicing the potatoes. However, a good sharp knife with do just as well.

Shoulder of lamb baker's style

1kg potatoes
1/2 onion
40g butter
40g smoked bacon
1 bay leaf
200ml chicken stock
2 small shoulders lamb (I used one medium boned, rolled, tied shoulder of lamb)
1 head garlic
3 sprigs fresh thyme
coarse sea salt

Preheat the oven to 200C. Peel the potatoes, wash and pat dry and peel into 2-3mm slices. Slice the onion half and dice the bacon.

Saute the onion rings in the butter until golden. Add the potatoes, diced bacon, and bay leaf and pour over the stock. Pre-cook in the oven for about 30 minutes then remove and place on one side.

Preheat the oven to 240C. Bake the shoulder of lamb for about 45 minutes, adding the garlic after 20 minutes.

Return the potatoes to the oven after another 10 minutes.

Place the thyme on top of the meat 5 minutes before the end of cooking time.

Arrange the lamb and potatoes on a serving dish, pour over the juices and season with salt.