Pomegranate Glazed Lamb Shoulder With Hasselback Potatoes

Method

1. If you can, start this the night before - combine rub ingredients with a generous lug of olive oil and rub all over the lamb. Wrap and pop in the fridge overnight to marinate. If you don’t have time to do this, just leave it to marinate for at least half an hour.
2. Preheat your oven to 140C. Line an oven tray with baking paper and lay out the chunks of onion. Pop the lamb on top of this, and then pour the chicken broth over the onions so it fills the bottom of the tray (this will stop the onions from burning too much). Transfer to the oven.
3. After about an hour of cooking, pull the lamb out and brush all over with pomegranate molasses (you can add a little hot water to this if your molasses is too thick). Pop back into the oven.
4. You’ll need to cook the lamb for around 6 hours total, basting every 1 - 2 hours with pomegranate molasses (it’s even better if you mix this with the pan juices from the lamb then brush on). If it looks like too much liquid has evaporated from the pan as you go, feel free to add more chicken broth or water.
5. While the roast is cooking, prep the potatoes. Cut the potatoes in half and make a series of even slits all the way down the potato, as though you were going to cut a slice off but didn’t cut all the way down to the bottom.
6. Add potatoes to a bowl with a sprinkle of salt, pepper, olive oil and fresh rosemary and toss to combine. Add these into the oven with the roast when you have about 2 and a half hours left on the timer.
7. When the time is up, remove the tray from the oven and let the lamb rest. At the same time, if the potatoes aren’t looking quite as crispy as you’d like, brush with oil and crank the oven up to 200C. Pop them back in for another 10-20 mins, but keep an eye on them!
8. Serve and enjoy!

Tip: The best way to tell if a lamb shoulder is done is to grab a fork and test whether the lamb pulls easily away from the bone. Once the lamb is tender and pulling easily, it’s ready.