Leftover Lamb Hotpot

Being Welsh, I’ve always looked forward to Easter Sunday, with its promise of a whole roast leg of lamb, served with sweet, seasonal vegetables and a dollop of homemade mint sauce. However, the best part of the whole Easter experience is deciding what to do with the leftover roast lamb, inevitably thrust into the fridge at around 4pm. The answer? A recipe for Leftover Lamb Hotpot.

This is a very simple recipe, based on the classic Lancashire hotpot, which makes the most of the meaty flavour and doesn’t hide it behind a veil of beefy gravy. For that reason, try your best to lay your hands on some lamb stock. You could even make some with the roasted bones from your joint of meat. It’ll make all the difference.

Don’t worry if you don’t have any leftover lamb. Lamb neck – scrag end – works really well here and can be picked up for around £6 per kilo. Just make sure you cook it for 2-3 hours to ensure juicy, succulent meat.

Leftover Lamb Hotpot

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 500g leftover lamb, large chunks*
• 2 onions, roughly chopped
• 2 sticks of celery, finely sliced
• 1 carrot, diced
• 40g butter
• 3 bay leaves
• 500ml lamb stock
• 2 tbsp fresh thyme, finely chopped
• 500g potatoes, thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp olive oil

*If using raw lamb brown it in the saucepan and remove before starting the vegetables.

Method:

1. Melt the butter in a large saucepan and saute the onions, along with the celery and carrot. After 5 minutes tip in the bay leaves, stock and meat. Simmer for an hour.
2. Meanwhile, thinly slice your potatoes and preheat your oven to 160C/140C (fan). After an hour has elapsed remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the fresh thyme.
3. Transfer the content of the saucepan to a suitably sized oven dish and layer neatly with the potatoes. This works best if you do a rough layer underneath, followed by a tidy layer on top.
4. Drizzle with the oil and pop in the oven. After an hour whack the oven up to 180C/160C(fan) and leave for 20-30 minutes to brown. Serve immediately with bread, buttered seasonal veg or both.

Cost: The price of lamb varies immensely depending on where you buy it and what cut you use. For the purpose of this hotpot recipe I’m going to go with £8/kg, but your lamb may be cheaper if, for instance, you opt to use lamb neck.

All ingredients considered, this fantastic way of using up leftover lamb after an Easter feast will set you back no more than £6.