Slow-Cooker Roast Shoulder of Lamb with Crispy Roast Potatoes

Hello there

Well, if like me, you found yourself looking at ways to save money on electricity this year, I read quite a lot of articles on how to do this.  I decided to dig out my Slow Cooker, something I am sorry to say has only ever been used a few times in the past 5 years of me owning it!! 

It may interest you to know that the slow cooker is one of the most economical ways to cook, using much less electricity than any other kitchen appliance when cooking meat, roasts, stews, casseroles and baking, etc.

But before I ramble on, I thought I’d just show you a little video of my method for cooking a roast shoulder of lamb in the slow cooker to wet your appetite. 

Now for those of you with a keen eye, you may have noticed a few discrepancies in my recording of the video, which I have to admit I've not mastered yet, but I’m working very hard to rectify as speedily as I can!!! you will notice that I served it up with roast potatoes but in the video showed you a saucepan of lovely green broccoli and gravy!!  As it would be rude of me not to share with you, my secret ingredient in producing these gloriously crispy, light, crunchy, golden roast potatoes that never fail to make your mouth water, I have added another video for just that!

It’s definitely worth remembering that this method of cooking the lamb works perfectly with beef, pork and even chicken. Only have a shallow amount of liquid in with your meat and vegetables, so as not to boil the meat as opposed to cooking it slowly the dry method.  By putting herbs, spices and seasoning on the top of your joint, it will allow the flavours to penetrate into the joint during the cooking process.  And as with the lamb once the meat is finished cooking in the slow cooker, you can always brown off your finished joint in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes just to give it a more colourful and crispy appearance.

ROAST POTATOES WITH MY SECRET INGREDIENT!

Ingredients: 

Maris Piper Potatoes (enough for the number of people you are serving.

Salt and pepper to taste.

2 TBLS of Semolina

Sprig of mint

2 x TBLS of Duck fat

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

As mentioned before I needed to cut down on the amount of electricity I was paying for because like most people in the UK, I was horrified when my electricity bills tripled in price. I’m happy to say that it’s been a really worthwhile exercise to do and I thought I would share with you some of the things I have learnt in doing so.

With a passion for food, I wanted to investigate different costs of cooking methods. I thought it would be fun to finish off with some energy efficient, mouth-watering solutions to conventional oven cooking.

Well as you can see, the Slow Cooker is a clear winner in costs and now that I have mastered more ways to use it other than casseroles and stews I find myself using it almost all the time.  Funnily enough it has freed up so much more time for me once I have done the preparation and set it up, I can literally get on with my day knowing my food is being cooked for later!

I really hope you enjoy the blog and try out the recipe's for yourself.  If you have any fantastic recipes that you use in your slow cooker I would be thrilled to hear from you in the comments.  Let me know if you have a go at adding "Semolina" to your roasties!!

Take care.

Nicky :)