Traditional Lancashire Lamb Hot Pot
Lancashire Lamb Hot Pot is a classic recipe for lamb from the British Isles. It’s a delicious stew of lamb, bacon, kidneys and vegetables topped with sliced potatoes and baked golden brown.
It’s a great recipe to make if you like stews but want to change things up a bit. It’s a great dish of comfort food, and a good way to introduce people to lamb or goat kidneys as they’re one of the traditional ingredients.
This recipe is by James Beard award-winning Chef Alan Bergo, the Forager Chef. A chef from Minnesota, Alan is a culinary industry veteran, former chef of acclaimed Lucia’s Restaurant and the Salt Cellar. Author of The Forager Chef’s Book of Flora, he’s one of the most respected voices in the world of foraging and wild food. He’s best known as the founder of Forager Chef, his website focused on wild ingredients that reaches millions of readers each year. Learn more about Chef Alan and his hunt for mushrooms, wild and obscure foods at foragerchef.com.
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Cuts used in the dish
Lamb Bacon (optional)
Lamb stew meat, neck or shoulder
How to make Lancashire Hot Pot
First the meat is browned very well in batches. Next, vegetables are browned and added to the meat. Stock is added just to barely cover the ingredients, then the whole pot is covered in a layer of thinly sliced potatoes, basted with lamb fat, and cooked until the potatoes are golden brown. Here’s a walkthrough of the steps.
Serving
Once the casserole comes out of the oven, you let it sit for a few moments before digging in. The potatoes hold in moisture and it eats a bit like a juicy casserole. It’s a must-try dish if you love lamb and goat, or appreciate traditional recipes.
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Lancashire Lamb Hot Pot
Equipment
- large skillet for browning the meat
- Dutch oven
Ingredients
Stew
- ¼ teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
- 1 large yellow onion (6 oz) diced ½ inch
- 6 oz carrot 2 medium cut into 1 inch pieces
- 6 oz 1 medium turnip cut into 1 inch pieces
- 24 oz lamb or goat shoulder neck, or stewing meat, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 8 oz 3 medium lamb or goat kidneys, whole
- 3 oz lamb or goat bacon optional cut into ½ inch pieces
- Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper
- 2 cups lamb stock or water
- 2 tablespoons all purpose flour or equivalent
- Melted lard or cooking oil for browning the meat
- ¼ cup dry red wine optional
- 1.5 lbs potato sliced thin
- ¼ cup rendered lamb fat plus more for drizzling on the potatoes
- 1 Tablespoon crumbled dried mushrooms
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Instructions
- Season the neck or other meat with 1 teaspoon salt and mix.
- In the dutch oven or similar pot you will cook the hot pot in, sweat the onion in 2 tablespoons of the fat with the rosemary and a pinch of salt for 2 minutes. Add the flour and stir to combine, cook for a minute more, then turn the heat off and set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 325F.
- Brown the stew meat in batches in a large pan-10 inches wide is a good size to start. After each pan of meat is browned, add a ¼ cup of water, quickly scrape the pan and pour the juices and meat into the dutch oven with the onion. Put the browned meat into a pan as you go. After the meat is browned, cook the bacon if using until it’s released its fat and is nearly crisp.
- Remove the bacon to the dish with the browned meat and pan juices then brown the kidneys in the bacon fat until golden on both sides. Add the carrot and rutabaga or turnips to the pan and cook on medium-high until browned and almost tender. Remove the kidneys from the pan to cool, then cut into ½ inch pieces.
- Add the browned meat and pan juices, along with the cooked vegetables and dried mushrooms if using to the dutch oven with the onions.
- Add the wine, worchesterchire and stock, bring the mixture to a boil, then turn the heat off, top with the sliced potatoes, overlapping them like shingles to give it an attractive design.
- Put the lid on the pot and bake for 45 minutes, then remove the lid, increase the heat to 475 F, baste the potatoes with lamb fat, and cook until the potatoes are browned, then serve. It will improve in flavor as it sits.