Given the surprisingly delicate nature of this dish and its slow cooked texture, opt for a wine with elegance and balance rather than overall power. The 2015 Punt Road Pinot Noir from the Yarra is ideal. It has ripe dark cherry and strawberry fruit, savoury stalk and foresty complexity, with clean red berry-like acidity to match the fat content in the lamb.
Ingredients
The Braise
1.2kg lamb shoulder, bone in
2 carrots
2 onions
2 sticks celery
1 leek
1 bulb garlic
½ bunch rosemary
3 litres of vegetable stock
Olive oil, salt & pepper
The Sauce
300g golden shallots, peeled and sliced
500g sliced button mushrooms
½ bunch thyme
1 tbsp black peppercorns
100g unsalted butter
2 bottles of Pinot Noir
The Sauce
300g golden shallots, peeled and sliced
500g sliced button mushrooms
½ bunch thyme
1 tbsp black peppercorns
100g unsalted butter
2 bottles of Pinot Noir
Salt-baked celeriac
2 grapefruit sized celeriac
3 cups plain flour
100g sea salt
2 tbsp chopped thyme leaves
1 lemon zest
2 eggs
Method
The Braise
1. Preheat a casserole pan on medium to high heat. Season lamb with salt, pepper and olive oil then brown sides in the casserole dish. Remove lamb and add vegetables and stock. Bring to the boil then add lamb back to the dish. Cover and bake at 140ºc for 3 hours.
The Sauce
1. Once the shoulder is cooked, carefully remove onto an oven tray and cover with foil.
2. Strain juices into another pot, being sure to push the liquid through to extract the flavour.
3. Put the casserole dish back onto a high heat and add the shallots, peppercorns, and thyme. Sweat until the shallots start to caramelise. Next add mushrooms and butter, stirring well. Once the mushrooms are starting to sizzle, add the pinot noir and reduce to a quarter of volume. Add the braising stock and simmer for 30 minutes, skimming off the fat to get a better sauce.
4. Strain sauce into a smaller pan and reduce until it coats the back of a spoon. It’s better to under reduce than over as it can get salty.
Salt-baked celeriac
Leave the skin on the celeriac as the flesh will be scooped out after its cooked.
1. Put dough ingredients into a mixer and bind until smooth, adding some water if it’s too dry. Cover dough and rest for ten minutes, then mould the dough around each celeriac until there are no holes.