The slower you can cook this the better and there’s something intensely satisfying about cooking a piece of meat slowly overnight in the oven and waking up to the kitchen smelling delicious. It gives you a sense of achievement with virtually no effort! If you want to shorten the cooking time, cook at 170ËšC/gas mark 3 for 5 hours or 180ËšC/gas mark 4 for 3 hours.

Ingrediants 2.5kg shoulder of lamb (bone in)50g unsalted butter6-8 fat cloves of garlic2 sprigs rosemary2 tsps fennel seeds2 tsps cumin seeds500ml boiling water

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180ËšC/gas mark 4.

2. Place the shoulder of lamb in a large roasting tray and smear the top of the meat with the butter.

3. Finely chop the rosemary needles, grind the fennel and cumin seeds in a pestle and mortar and press down on the cloves of garlic so they are flattened. Pat the rosemary, fennel and cumin into the butter, squash in the cloves of garlic and grind some black pepper over.

4. Pour the boiling water around the lamb and cover with a double layer of foil.

5. Place the roasting tray in the oven, turn the temperature down to 140ËšC/gas mark 1 and cook for approximately 8-10 hours, removing the foil for the last half hour to brown the top of the lamb.

6. When tender and cooked through remove from the oven and allow to rest and cool slightly before pulling or shredding the meat from the bone. (Using two forks often helps with this process.)