Lamb shoulder confit

Steps

for the lamb

• Ask to your butcher to prepare the lamb into a roasting cylinder
• Preheat the oven at 150°C
• Salt and pepper the lamb all over
• Peel and wash the onions
• Peel and wash the garlic
• Peel and wash the carrots
• Remove the bottom part of the leek and the green part, wash it as well
• Slice all vegetables in very small cubes (brunoise)
• Heat-up 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a pan going into the oven
• Add the lamb and turn it all over to give it some color
• Remove lamb
• Add the onion and stir until it has no more humidity
• Add another tablespoon of olive oil
• Add the garlic and stir until it gets some color
• Add the leek and stir constantly until it loses its humidity as well
• Add the carrots and stir all over until they get some oil on them too
• Place the lamb on top of the veggies
• Add the wine and let it simmer a little bit until the wine evaporates
• Add some water until the lamb is covered ¾
• Add salt and pepper
• Place the pan into the oven and cook for 3h at 150°C
• Remove the lamb from the oven and cut-off the strings
• Pass the veggies through a sieve to separate them from the cooking juice
• It’s possible that at the end you have a lot of cooking juice
• Place the pan over high heat and let the juice evaporate until half its portion
• Use this juice to cook in it some tagliatelles with the veggies, it’s delicious :-)

for the polenta

• Heat-up some water or the stock
• Once it’s boiling, add the polenta
• Reduce the heat
• Stir vividly with a wooden spoon
• Once all the water absorbed, remove it from heat
• Add the butter cut in pieces, and stir again on the heat
• Add the grated cheese, and stir again until it is absorbed
• Add a little bit of salt (be careful if you are using stock), and stir
• Remove from heat

to bring everything together

• Place one part of the polenta on a dish
• Place some veggies all around the polenta
• Place on top one slice of the lamb
• Pour some cooking juice on top
• Enjoy!

Inspiration

The recipe of the xaxi ardia confit of Mondarrain in the book Collectif, La Cuisine Basque, Hachette Livre, Paris, 2018, p.199.