Craig Cooks

Slow-cooked Spanish Lamb

September 9, 2025 By admin Leave a Comment

Here’s a variation of a dish that I’ve cooked on a charcoal BBQ a number of times. I call it Spanish Lamb and it consists of studding a lamb leg or shoulder with slivers of garlic clove, seasoning with salt and pepper, then smothering it with tomato paste and oregano (fresh or dried), and then cooking it.

[Apologies for the terrible iPhone photos. I need a new one!]

This time it was a slow-cooked fairly large shoulder of lamb. The fat on the lamb was pretty thick so I made slices all the way along.

The lamb was then prepared as above, then sprinked with 1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika and 1 tsp Aleppo pepper flakes.

I added the following to the baking tray

1 large carrot, peeled and cut into chunks
1/2 leek, cut into chunks
6 brown shallots
1/2 head garlic, cut in half
1 red capsicum cut into 8 slices
3 strips orange peel
1 cup white wine
2 -3 cups water
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 large bay leaf
2 cloves

I cooked it at 120C for about 3 hours, then on 150C for about 1/2 hours. After the first hour I covered it with alfoil, then took that off towards the end. I turned the lamb part-way through so that the meat on top softened under the liquid, then turned it back again.

I removed some liquid towards the end to make a sauce. I blotted off some of the fat with paper towel, then cooked it down to reduced it. I strained it and later thickened it with Arrowroot powder.

I cranked up the oven to 200C to brown the top of the meat at the end.

Sides

White bean puree – cooked Cannellini beans blitzed with chicken stock, 2 cooked garlic cloves, 2 tbps butter
Scallopped potates baked with cream and butter
Brussels sprouts – olive oil and salt baked at 200C
Green Sicilian olives

It doesn’t look pretty on the plate but it tasted amazing.