Lamb and leek hotpot recipe
With the autumn setting in, it’s time to switch back to warming recipes and bring my trusty terracotta casserole out of its summer hibernation. I tried out a new recipe last week: a delicious lamb and leek hotpot, which I found in my Good Housekeeping Top 10 recipe book. I’ve added carrots to the recipe for extra nutritional value, but you could pretty much add whatever you like. This serves four people.
You will need
- Diced lamb – I used two packs
- 2 baking potatoes
- 2-3 carrots, depending on size
- 2-3 leeks, depending on size
- One onion
- 2 gloves of garlic (I cheated with lazy garlic)
- 600ml lamb stock
- Real butter – exact quantity not crucial
- Cooking oil – exact quantity not crucial
- 150ml double cream
- 1 tablespoon plain flour
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme, finely chopped
- 3 tablespoons fresh parsely, finely chopped
- Salt and pepper
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C (150 for fan ovens). Start by preparing the vegetables: roughly chop an onion and slice the carrots and leeks. Then cook them together in some butter for about ten minutes, until they’ve softened slightly. While they’re cooking, peel and thinly slice the potatoes and leave them to one side for now. After that, remove the other vegetables from the casserole and put them in a bowl to one side.
Step 2
In the same dish, add the oil (I used raw coconut oil, which I now use in cooking instead of olive oil because it’s healthier) and garlic and brown the meat, sprinkling the flour over it when it first goes into the pot. When it’s brown, remove it from the casserole and put it in a bowl to one side.
Step 3
Place a layer of the potatoes in the bottom of the casserole and season with salt and pepper.
Then add the meat…
…And then the vegetables.
Finally, layer up the rest of the potatoes so that they overlap on the top. Season with salt and pepper.
Step 4
Pour over the lamb stock and then sprinkle over the chopped fresh herbs. Then bring it to the boil, put the lid on and put it into the oven for an hour and 50 minutes.
Step 5
When an hour and 50 minutes has elapsed, take it out of the oven, remove the lid and scatter some dollops of butter over the top. Then pour over the double cream and put it back into the oven, uncovered, for half an hour until it’s nice and golden on top.
And there you have it. Not the most aesthetically pleasing of meals, but it tastes delicious and it’s a really nice way to cook a cheap batch of lamb.
