Easter brunch or lunch: both need some lamb

Spiced slow-roast shoulder of lamb, and Berber eggs with merguez sausages.

Easter is nearly upon us and I need to clarify an important detail: Lindt Lindor eggs are absolutely nothing to do with either the Food Giants or ultra-processed-food. Obviously.

Although, in the interests of continuing to put my socks on unaided,* I’m going to do my best to keep consumption in the low hundreds.

*Little know fact: arms do not get longer as girth increases. Eventually this gets very inconvenient.

And I strongly advise – both to avoid finding that your arms are an inadequate length and to avoid contributing to the Food Giants’ Easter bonus (Food Giants LOVE Easter) – that you only eat chocolate that is your absolute favourite.

Wishing you all a very happy Easter

If you are thinking of slow-roasting a shoulder of lamb for Easter lunch, this an excellent way to do it. It is, however, a mildly heretical recipe: there’s a widely held belief that you can’t overcook meat if you cook it slowly, but there’s a point at which the wonderful, soft succulence produced by the low temperature starts to dry out and become tough again. 3 hours seems to hit the sweet spot. There would be a photo, but whenever I’ve cooked it, I am always so excited by the smell, and there’s always a crowd, and that involves alcohol (Allegedly), that by the time I remember, most of it has been eaten.

It goes extremely well with zaalouk and Santina’s crushed potatoes with anchovy, parsley and garlic. I might add some green beans or a simple green salad.

Slow Roast Shoulder of Lamb

• A 2.5kg shoulder of lamb

• 1 teaspoon of coriander seeds

• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds

• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika

• 1 tablespoon rock salt

• A little olive oil

1. Preheat the oven to 160º / 320°f / fan 140º / gas mark 3

2. Crush the spices and the salt together with a pestle and mortar.

3. Put the lamb in a roasting tin, and rub olive oil over it so that the spices will stick to it; then rub the spices all over the lamb.

4. Roast in the oven for 3 hours, until the meat is falling off the bone and lamb is soft and succulent, most of the fat has rendered out of it, and the outside is crispy.

If your Easter feasting is heading in a bruncherly direction, these Berber eggs with merguez sausages are sensational. Especially if you can get them from the Ginger Pig butcher. I would say that if you don’t live near to one, you should consider moving house, but they do nationwide delivery which would save a lot on stamp duty. To cook them, put a griddle pan on a medium heat and brown them on all sides for 10 – 15 minutes.

Berber Eggs

Serves 4

• 8 eggs

• 8 Tomatoes,

• 2 Red peppers

• 2 cloves of garlic

• 1 chilli

• A small handful of fresh coriander (optional)

• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds,

• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika

• 1 teaspoon ground cumin

• Seeds from a couple of cardamom pods

• 2 teaspoons honey

• 4 teaspoons olive oil*

• Salt

1. Grate or finely chop the tomatoes.

2. Finely dice the red pepper.

3. Crush the garlic.

4. Finely slice the chilli.

5. Chop the coriander if using.

6. Put all the ingredients except the eggs and chopped coriander in a bowl and mix well.

7. Put them in a pan and let them bubble away on a medium heat for 20 – 30 minutes till the tomatoes and peppers are well cooked and the flavour has sweetened and intensified. If it dries out, add a little water.

8. Add the eggs and cook for a further 3 – 4 minutes until the whites are cooked and the yolks still runny.

9. Scatter the chopped coriander over them and serve.

Diva Notes

Cooking the eggs

Do not do chuck in the eggs and then sit around drinking coffee and prosecco for half an hour – you might as well take them out in the garden and play football with them. On the other hand, the last time I did that, they were still rather good.

And if you have any leftover, they are very good cold. I say as I eat my leftover ones cold.

Olive oil

You can use less oil if you need to, or more if you prefer. This amount is good balance between making it low-calorie-dense and downright miserable.

And you can either heat the oil in the pan, first, or mix it in with the other ingredients and chuck it all into the pan at the same time.

Tomatoes

You can be fairly free with the exact number, and you can use cherry tomatoes, but they take more chopping up.