Preserved lemon, garlic & anchovy lamb shoulder with white beans & caramelised fennel

Slow Sunday style cooking

Soph here.

I am currently writing this sat in my dressing gown on Sunday mid-morning in complete appreciation of my husband as he gets the lamb ready for the oven for this afternoon’s lazy feast.

Many people ask us how it is working together as husband and wife, and we always answer truthfully that we’ve never know any different. After all we met working together and in one way or another, Adam has always been roped into jobs with me. He worked full time at Olive magazine for many years whilst practically full time at sophiegodwin.com haha.

Reflecting this morning, albeit in a slight hungover daze, the real reason why it works is because whilst I’m gallivanting around the kitchen getting over excited about a new idea, Ad is finding my keys in the fridge, making sure that we’ve left the house (nearly) on time and is without fuss, quietly ticking off jobs on our to do list.

In short he is the engine of our ship and Rudy and I would be rudderless without him. And (not to do myself a disservice) I am a fantastic captain. lol.

So onto the recipe. This one is a fab one!

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We also had a really lovely write up of our new cookbook, You Can Cook Everything in the Independent, no less! We had an interview with journalist Hannah Twiggs who we told all about the book and you can read it HERE.

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Preserved lemon, garlic & anchovy lamb with white beans & caramelised fennel

2 fennel bulbs

2 preserved lemons

a large handful fresh oregano

large pinch chilli flakes (we used smoky Urfa chilli flakes, but normal will work, too)

5 garlic cloves

1/2 lamb shoulder

4-6 anchovy fillets

750ml chicken stock

570g jar of white beans

large handful kalamata olives

BASIL GREEN SAUCE

large bunch basil

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1/2 - 1 green chilli

1 lemon

Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan.

Slice the fennel into 1cm slices and tip into a large, deep roasting tin. Cut the preserved lemons into quarters, pick out any pips and cut in half lengthways again. Tip into the tray along with 4 of the whole garlic cloves. Strip the leaves from 1/2 of the oregano sprigs and sprinkle into the tray, along with the chilli flakes.

Give everything a little drizzle with olive oil.

Use a small knife to make incisions into the lamb. Cut the anchovy fillets in half and thinly slice the remaining garlic clove. Strip the leaves from a few of the sprigs of oregano. Stuff each of the incisions with 1/2 an anchovy fillet, a garlic slice and one or two oregano leaves. Put on top of the fennel, drizzle with a little oil and season really well with salt. Put into the oven for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, turn the oven down to 160C/140C fan. Remove the tray from the oven and pour in the chicken stock. Cover really tightly with a double layer of foil and put back into the oven for 3 hours, or until the lamb is meltingly tender.

Remove the foil and stir in the jar of white beans along with the liquid from the jar and the kalamata olives. Put back into the oven for 30 minutes to warm through the beans.

Make the basil green sauce by adding the basil, oil and chilli to a blender with the zest and juice of the lemon, a pinch of salt and pepper and whizz until completely smooth and vibrant green.

Shred the lamb, straight into the tray and spoon over the salsa verde. Enjoy!