Turkey, ham, Norwegian spiced pork belly, bacon, cold leftover turkey, turkey soup, ham sandwiches, Jamie’s Asian-style turkey salad, cold pork, more ham, beef fillet, Thai green turkey curry…and so it went on over the Christmas period, to the point where we said we never wanted to eat meat again. Except that we didn’t mean it. We love it of course and after a couple of days of eating mainly vegetables and pasta, we were ready to be carnivores again and I made lamb shawarma for the first time.

Since there were only going to be three of us, I bought a half shoulder of lamb instead of a whole one. At the last minute we invited a friend to join us but there was still plenty for four people. The recipe is one by Honey & Co like the pomegranate molasses chicken I did a while ago. I adapted it for slow Aga cooking for a change (joke) and I was very pleased with the result.

We ate ours in wraps with the white cabbage and pomegranate salad suggested in the Honey & Co. book, and a dollop of yoghurt. Delicious.

Lamb Shawarma

Ingredients

• 4 onions, peeled
• 1 shoulder of lamb, on the bone
• 3 tbsps ras el hanout
• 2 tsps salt

For the salad:

• ½ white cabbage, shredded
• ½ tsp salt
• juice of 1 lemon
• Small bunch parsley, chopped
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
• Seeds from 1 pomegranate

Method

• Purée two of the onions with the ras el hanout, salt and pepper in a food processor
• Slice the other two onions and place them in a roasting tin
• Pat the purée all over the lamb and lay it on the bed of onions
• Place the roasting tin uncovered in the roasting oven for 20 minutes, by which time it will have started to colour and brown
• Pour in a glass of water and cover the tin with foil
• Place in the simmering oven for several hours; I’d say a minimum of four but after seven or eight it will be even more meltingly gorgeous. You should baste it every so often and maybe add some more water, but only if it’s drying out
• It’s done when the meat falls easily off the bone
• (Conventional oven owners: start it in a very hot oven for 30 minutes and then turn it down, after adding water and covering the tin, to 200ºC/180ºC fan, and roast for a further hour. Repeat the process and turn the oven down to 180ºC/160ºC fan for a couple more hours, basting halfway)
• For the salad, sprinkle salt on the shredded cabbage in a bowl, mix and allow to sit for 15 minutes until it starts to soften. Add the lemon juice, parsley and vegetable oil and mix well. Sprinkle with the pomegranate seeds, reserving a few to sprinkle over the lamb