Lancashire Hot Pot
This takes half an hour on the hob, and six hours in a slow cooker.
SERVES
6
PEOPLE
PREP TIME
15
MINUTES
COOKING TIME
390
MINUTES
Ingredients
650g diced lamb
2 tbsp olive oil
3 onions
2 leeks
4 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp plain flour
750ml lamb or chicken stock
1 sprig fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
300g black pudding
300g carrots
300g parsnips
1kg rooster potatoes
20g butter
Salt and pepper to season
Method
Peel and slice the onions. Wash and thinly slice just the white part of the leeks, setting aside the green parts to use another day. Peel and mince three cloves of garlic. Peel the carrots and parsnips and cut them into one-centimetre sized dice. Season the lamb with some salt and ground black pepper. Warm the olive oil in a large nonstick pan over a high heat. When the oil starts to shimmer, add the lamb and brown it all over. When the lamb is seared all over, remove it from the pan and set it aside.
Next, add the sliced onions to the pan and sauté them in the meat juices until they are soft, about five to six minutes should do it. Add the minced garlic and cook for a further minute, before then adding two tablespoons of plain flour. Stir in the flour, then add the stock, the bay leaves and the thyme. Stir and then simmer the gravy for about ten minutes, just until it has thickened a little.
Cut the black pudding into two-centimetre chunks and pop it into to the dish of your slow cooker along with the seared lamb. Add the chopped carrots and parsnips and the onion gravy. Stir to combine everything well, pop on the lid and slow cook on low for four hours.
After four hours, taste the gravy, adding more seasoning if required. Peel and thinly slice the potatoes. Arrange the slices on top of the lamb, starting around the edges of the dish and working in to create a nice, scalloped pattern of potato slices. Lay each slice of potato over the bottom half of the preceding slice to create a double layer of potato. Replace the lid on the slow cooker, increase the heat to high and cook for another two hours.
After two hours has passed, the potatoes should be cooked through and soft with the gravy just bubbling up beneath them.
Melt the butter. Peel and mince the remaining clove of garlic and add that to the butter. Brush the top of the potatoes with the melted butter. Remove the dish from the slow cooker and put it under a hot grill for ten to fifteen minutes until the layer of potatoes are crisp and golden.
Serve this lovely Lancashire Hot Pot with some steamed tender stem broccoli or another green vegetable on the side.
