On the heat. Mild

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg lamb neck slices, on the bone
• 1.2 kg floury potatoes, sliced 3 mm
• 3 onions, sliced
• 2 carrots, sliced (purists object; include them)
• 2 tbsp flour · 50 g butter · 2 tbsp oil
• 500 ml lamb stock
• 2 bay leaves · thyme
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• Salt, plenty of black pepper
• Pickled red cabbage, to serve

Method

1. Toss the neck slices in seasoned flour and brown them hard in the oil. Out.
2. Onions and carrots in the same pan, 10 minutes. Remaining flour in, then stock gradually, then Worcestershire, bay and thyme. Simmer to a loose gravy.
3. Layer in a deep dish: meat, onion mixture, meat, then overlap the potato slices on top like roof tiles. Pour the gravy in at the side until it reaches just below the potatoes.
4. Brush the potatoes generously with melted butter and season.
5. Lid on, 160 °C for 2 hours.
6. Lid off, 200 °C for 45 minutes until the top is deep brown and crisp and the underneath has gone to a soft mash. Rest 15 minutes. Pickled red cabbage, always.

Cook's note. Two potato textures is the whole dish. Crisp on top, dissolved into the gravy beneath. Covering it for the whole cook gives you neither.

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