scotch broth with winter root veg

Ingredients

½ quality shoulder of lamb, about 1kg, or 600g leftover roast lamb

sea salt

freshly ground white pepper

1 leek, trimmed, washed and roughly chopped

2 sticks celery, roughly chopped, leaves reserved

2 onions, peeled and finely sliced

2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped

olive oil

3 litres organic lamb stock

1 small swede, peeled and roughly chopped

1 large potato, peeled and roughly chopped

80 g pearl barley

1 small bunch fresh parsley, leaves picked

1 loaf fresh crusty bread, to serve

1 splash Scotch whisky, optional

Method

Preheat the oven to 170ºC/325ºF/gas mark 3.

If using the shoulder of lamb, rub it all over with salt and pepper, place on a baking tray and cover with tin foil. Cook in the oven for about 3 hours, until the meat is lovely and tender, and falls off the bone. Pull all the meat off, reserving the bone, and put to one side.

Put the leek, celery, onions and carrots into a large saucepan, add a splash of olive oil and sweat them on a low heat for about 20 minutes, until they are softened and starting to sweeten. Add the lamb stock and, if you have it, the lamb bone, too. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 20 minutes.

Add the swede, potato and pearl barley, then simmer slowly for a further 50 minutes. You don't want the heat too high - it should just be ticking along nicely.

Take the pot off the hob and whisk the broth quite hard to break down some of the potato and bind the soup together. Stir in the pieces of roast lamb and season well with salt and white pepper, tasting as you go to make sure you've got the seasoning right.

Serve sprinkled with parsley and celery leaves, and a good hunk of crusty bread on the side. If you want to be really authentic, why not add a little dram of whisky to each bowl?