Braised Lamb with Eggplant

Eggplant sauce

100g x finely sliced eshallots (lengthways)

Olive oil

250ml x white vermouth

250ml x white wine

75g x brown sugar

½ x bunch rosemary picked (not chopped)

½ x head garlic chopped finely

25g x ginger finely chopped

1kg x tin diced tomato’s

1 x tbs ground cumin

½ x tbs smoked paprika

1 x tbs mustard seeds

1 x tbs ground fennel seeds

1 x tbs cumin seeds whole

1 x tbs sumac

1kg large eggplant cut in half then each half into 8 length ways

Lamb

1 x lamb shoulder 1.5kg

2 x carrots peeled and roughly chopped

¼ x bunch celery roughly chopped

2 x bay leaf

1 x brown onion peeled and diced

Light beef stock

2 x tbs Black pepper

4 x tbs Yogurt

½ x bunch Mint leaves picked

Extra virgin Olive oil

Method for eggplant sauce

Sweat eshallots, garlic, ginger and rosemary in a large pot until opaque not brown and cook for 5 min add in vermouth, diced tomato and sugar reduce for 25 min. set aside until cool. Coat the eggplant pieces in olive oil and bake in a 180 degree oven for 25min, once cooked at to the tomato sauce and set aside.

Method for the Lamb

Bring a large pan a high heat with a splash of oil seal the lamb shoulder until golden brown on both sides place in a large baking dish cover with carrots, celery, bay leaf, onion, black pepper. Then pour enough stock to completely cover the lamb. place in a moderate oven  at 150 degrees covered for about 3hrs or until the meat is falling off the bone. Once the lamb is cooked increase the oven to 220 degrees take the cover of the lamb and cook for a further 20min this will give a nice colour Remove from the oven and set aside.

To Serve

Place eggplant mix on your desired serving platter remove lamb form the cooking liquid and place on the lamb top with yoghurt and splash with extra virgin olive oil and garnish with picked mint, serve immediately