Chef Adam Gray's Braised lamb bellies

We're big fans of Adam Gray and he has been a supporter of The Ethical Butcher since the beginning as he is known for producing modern British food to an exceptional standard.

Adam has very generously shared a few of his personal recipes with us with a focus on lamb and some of the cuts we're offering in our lamb box. Lamb bellies a bit of a forgotten about cut and need slow cooking to do justice but the reward is deep rich flavour.

Ingredients:

2 Boned, rolled and tied lamb bellies/breasts

2 Red onions – peeled and roughly cut

3 Carrots – peeled and roughly cut

4 Celery sticks– roughly cut

1 Leek – roughly cut and washed

400g Tinned chopped plum tomatoes

1 Garlic bulb – cut in half

3 Rosemary sprigs

2 Litres lamb stock – from a stock cube

½ Bottle white wine – optional

100Ml British rapeseed oil

Method:

• Colour the lamb breast in a hot pan with a little rapeseed oil until golden brown all over.
• Remove and allow the fat to drain
• Add all the rough-cut vegetables to the pan and also colour until golden brown then add the rosemary.
• Return the lamb breasts and deglaze with the white wine if using.
• Place the lamb and vegetables into a deep casserole dish.
• Cover the lamb breasts with the lamb stock and the tinned tomatoes.
• Place the lid on the casserole dish or cover with two layers of foil.
• Place the casserole dish in a pre-heated oven at 150c 4-5 hours until the lamb is tender to the touch.
• Remove the lamb breasts from the casserole dish and place on a tray to cool.
• When the lamb has cooled, cut and remove all the string on with scissors.
• Strain the lamb cooking liquor through a fine sieve into a saucepan.
• Bring the lamb cooking liquor to the boil and reduce to a consistency of a rich gravy.
• Cut the lamb breasts into 3-4cm width pieces and add them back to the lamb gravy saucepan to re-heat, coating them in the hot gravy.

To Serve:

Serve the braised lamb belles with finely shredded buttered leeks and crushed new potatoes.