Cava Braised Lamb

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Braised lamb either shreds or it does not, and the difference is entirely about collagen.

Collagen converts to gelatin at around 70°C, but slowly — it takes hours at that temperature, not minutes. Until it has converted, the meat is tough. Once it has, the meat falls apart and the liquid is rich and slightly sticky.

You cannot speed this up by raising the temperature. Higher heat squeezes water out of the muscle faster than the collagen breaks down, and you end up with meat that is both dry and tough — the worst of both.

Low and long. Three hours minimum.

Shoulder, not leg

Shoulder is a hard-working muscle with a lot of connective tissue and intramuscular fat. That is exactly what you want: plenty of collagen to convert and enough fat to keep it moist over three hours.

Leg is leaner and tighter-grained. Braised, it goes stringy rather than shreddable.

Brown it properly, in batches

The browning is where a large part of the flavour comes from, and it takes longer than people allow — eight to ten minutes total, in batches, with the pieces not touching.

Crowd the pan and the meat releases water, the pan drops below browning temperature, and the lamb greys instead. There is no recovering that colour later.

Pat the pieces dry first.

Barely covered, not submerged

Liquid should come about two-thirds of the way up the meat. Fully submerged, the lamb boils and the braising liquid stays thin.

Partly exposed, the top surface roasts while the bottom braises, and the liquid reduces into something worth spooning over.

What you need

• 1.4 kg lamb shoulder, boneless, in 5 cm pieces
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 onions, sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 400 g tin chopped tomatoes
• 350 ml chicken or lamb stock
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 bay leaves
• juice of 1 lemon
• salt and black pepper

Method

1. Oven to 150°C.
2. Pat the lamb dry and season well.
3. Brown in olive oil in a heavy casserole, in batches, 8–10 minutes total. Remove.
4. Onions into the same pot, 8 minutes until soft and golden. Garlic, 1 minute.
5. Tomato purée and all the dry spices, stirred for 1 minute to bloom them in the fat.
6. Tinned tomatoes and stock. Scrape the base.
7. Return the lamb with the bay leaves. Liquid should come two-thirds up.
8. Lid on, into the oven for 2.5 to 3 hours. Check at 2.5.
9. Lemon juice stirred in at the end.

Bloom the spices in fat

A minute of stirring ground spices in hot fat before liquid arrives makes a noticeable difference. Their aromatic compounds are fat-soluble, so they dissolve into the oil and spread through the whole dish.

Added with the liquid, a good share stays as gritty particles suspended in water.

The lemon at the end

Three hours of braising gives you something rich, deep and slightly heavy. Acid at the end lifts it, and it has to be at the end — lemon added at the start cooks into nothing.

Storing

Four days in the fridge and better on day two, like every braise.

Three months frozen. Freeze it in the liquid, which protects the meat.

Reheat gently. Boiling shredded braised meat makes it stringy.