What you may ask is a Lancashire Hotpot recipe doing on our Yorkshire recipe pages. Well my excuse is that I was born in Lancashire and this recipe comes from Nigel Haworth at the Michelin starred Northcote Manor is so fabulous and so easy I couldn’t not share it.
It’s a traditional dish of slow cooked lamb, topped with layers of onion and potato and it’s just about the most comforting winter warmer you’ll ever come across, short of a pair of cashmere bed socks.
Note: You’ll need to plan ahead for the pickled red cabbage which needs at least 24 hours to mature, but do make it. The cabbage is finely shredded and beautifully spiced and a hundred miles from the vinegary abominations found in jars. It will last for ages in a sealed kilner jar and it cuts through the richness of the Lancashire Hotpot perfectly.
Nigel Haworth uses a stoneware dish, diameter 21cm x 9cm. I use a Le Creuset casserole. (Serves 4)
Oven: 180-200C
Ingredients
1 kg shoulder, neck and shin of lamb (cut into 3-4 cm thick slices, trimmed of all fat)
700g thinly sliced onions
l kg peeled King Edward potatoes
25g plain flour
40g melted butter
150 ml chicken stock
3 tsp sea salt
white pepper
Method
Season the lamb with l level tsp salt and a good pinch of pepper. Dust with flour and put lamb in the base of the dish.
Sweat off the onions in 15g of the butter with l tsp salt for 5 mins. If I’m in a hurry I just put them in raw.
Spread the onions on top of the lamb in the dish.
Slice the potatoes horizontally (2mm thick). Place in a bowl and add the remaining 25g of melted butter.
Season with a tsp of salt and pinch white pepper and mix well.
Arrange the sliced potatoes in concentric circles on top of the onions, reserving the best shaped one for the final layer. Pour over the chicken stock.
Cover the dish and place in a pre-heated oven for 30 mins. Then lower the heat to 130C for 3 hours.
After 3.5 hrs, turn up the heat again to 180-200C, remove the lid and return to the oven for 30-40 minutes for the top to brown.
Serve the Lancashire Hotpot with the pickled red cabbage below.
Pickled Red Cabbage
1 head red cabbage 400-500g
2 star anise
400ml red wine
275 ml malt vinegar
140 ml white wine vinegar
140 ml balsamic vinegar
5 bay leaves
10 whole cloves
1 tsp whole black peppercorns
1 tsp whole pink peppercorns
1 stick cinnamon snapped in half
5 whole dried red chillies
300g caster sugar
55g course sea salt for salting the cabbage
Method
Half and quarter the red cabbage
Cut away the large stem and finely slice (I put it through the fine grater of the food processor)
Put the cabbage in colander and mix in the salt and leave for 2hrs until it has reached a deep rich colour
Drain and wash off all the salt and pat dry
Place all the vinegars, wine and sugar in a non-reactive pan and reduce by half
Grind all the dry ingredients with a pestle and mortar
Place the dry ingredients in the reduction and allow to infuse for 5 minutes
Pass the reduction through a fine sieve and while still hot pour over the cabbage
Put the cabbage in a suitable jar (kilner jar)
Allow to cool, if possible overnight. Refrigerate