Black Lamb Recipe

I cooked Black Lamb, from the Recipe from Help for Heroes Cookbook, contributed by Squadron Leader Jon Pullen. It was absolutely fantastic, really nice. I don't really like lamb, but OH and darling father do, and this made the lamb so tasty and tender that I could manage fine.

Ingredients: Large shoulder of lamb, 1 level tsp dry ginger, 1 level tsp dry mustard, garlic salt, 25g (1oz) plain flour. Sauce: 1 small onion, 30g (big tablespoon) of melted butter, 4 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce, 4 tablespoons brown sauce, 4 tablespoons mushroom ketchup, 2 level tablespoons sugar, 1 tablespoons vinegar, 140ml water.

Mode: 1. Preheat oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7 2. Trim fat and weigh meat. Season with salt and pepper and rub with the ginger, mustard powder and garlic salt. Sprinkle the joint with flour and put in roasting tin 3. Finely dice onion and mix with all the other sauce ingredients and pour over the lamb. 4 Cook joint in oven for 30 minutes. 5 After 30 mins reduce heat to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and continue for 30 minutes for every 500g of lamb. 6. Baste frequently. The joint goes black, that is okay. Add more water if required. 7. Serve with mashed potatoes and peas.

Next time I make it I plan to make gravy with the juices left in the pan, and I will make it again and again and again.

Also I recommend the Help for Heroes cook book. The recipes are good and interesting, and the contributors include celebrities like Nick Clegg and Judi Dench, serving soldiers, veterans and professional chefs. The best bit, for me, is that with each recipe is a little bit by the contributor about who their hero is and why. The Black Lamb was contributed by Squadron Leader Jon Pullen who didn't follow the herd by naming people like Shackleton or Gandhi. His hero is Blackadder.