The dish combines the wonderful flavours of lemon, rosemary, aniseed and honey. It works well as a spectacular Sunday lunch. One large lamb shoulder will feed 5 – 6 people. It is absolutely imperative that you use lamb of excellent quality or the texture of the shoulder will be wrong. Most supermarket acquired lamb will not suffice for this dish.
Prepare the lamb shoulder
Flatten one large shoulder of lamb using a rolling pin. Flatten it into a rectangular shape and if necessary, trim the edges
For the stuffing
4 oz (120 gms) finely diced lamb (use excess lamb from the shoulder trimmings)
4 oz (120 gms) chopped streaky bacon
1 oz (25 gms) chopped almonds
leaves of 2 sprigs of rosemary, chopped
1 tbsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp grated lemon peel
1 slice of fried bread
Ground black pepper to season
Combine all the ingredients into a food processor and process for a short time until the mixture forms a course paste. You do not want the stuffing paste to be too smooth.