Slow Roast Shoulder of Mutton with Carrot, Tomatoes, and Red Wine

This Father’s Day why not try Kindling Restaurant’s slow roast mutton shoulder as a centre piece for your table. A classic combination of seasonal flavours from Chef Toby Geneen’s childhood, this dish is rich, comforting and perfect for a family celebration. Kindling’s ethos centres around seasonal produce and ethical farming. Here, the traditional spring lamb is replaced with a piece of regeneratively farmed mutton.

Regenerative agriculture is a farming system that aims to restore and improve the countryside. When it comes to sheep this means rotating their grazing and uses practices such as planting herbs into the fields to enhance the health of the herd. This has the added benefit of enhancing the flavour. Mutton is typically four to six years old. Being a matured meat, it has had plenty of time outside allowing it to develop a generous fat content and deep gamey flavour that just isn’t present in the younger lamb.

At the restaurant the mutton is sourced directly from a local farm, Saddlescombe, located on the Sussex downs.

To source high quality mutton, speak to your local butcher or farm shop.

Pair this with a dessert recipe from Kindling Restaurant I posted last week: White chocolate fudge with dark chocolate crumb.

Kindling Restaurant in Brighton is about more than just the delicious food, it is a community of people: staff, customers and suppliers all sharing and celebrating food and knowledge. Nature writes the menu as the seasons inspire the food. Kindling is featured in the Michelin Guide 2021 and is a member of the Sustainable Restaurants Association.

Slow Roast Shoulder of Mutton with Carrot, Tomatoes, and Red Wine

Ingredients:

1 whole mutton shoulder, on the bone (1.8 – 2kg)

5 echalion shallots, halved and peeled

10 ripe plum tomatoes, halved with the white core removed

5 large carrots, peeled and thinly sliced

1 head of garlic, divided into cloves, but not peeled

1 tbsp olive oil

Sea salt

1 bunch of thyme, tied

3 sticks of rosemary, tied

3 bay leaf

500 ml red wine

500 ml chicken stock

Method:

Preheat your oven to 130C.

Mix all the vegetables together in a roasting tray with a little salt and olive oil. Spread them out into a bed for the shoulder. Tuck the herb bundles underneath the meat and pour your wine and chicken stock over the vegetable bed.

Slow roast for 4 hours uncovered, topping up the liquid with a little water if the stew becomes too dry.

Remove the tray from the oven and put meat to one side to rest, ideally with a clean tea towel on top to prevent it from cooling too much. Remove herb bundles from the sauce by giving them a little shake.

Carefully pour or spoon the sauce into another pan, then simmer for 10 – 15 mins until thickened. Season with some salt if it needs it, then arrange in your serving dish and top with the mutton, carved or pulled apart. Serve with mash potato and seasonal greens.