Lamb shoulder comes very high on my list of favourite things to eat. Cooked slowly it becomes meltingly tender and the bones can be lifted from it so that serving becomes a simple pushing apart with forks. The sauce it generates during cooking is taken up by the shredded meat and you have this juicy, highly herb flavoured result - complimented perfectly by briefly braised, vibrant green broad beans and peas.

Ingredients - serves 6 1.5kg lamb shoulder 3 shallots, peeled & sliced 5 whole cloves garlic, peeled 3 tbsp olive oil 300ml white wine 2 sprigs rosemary, 2 sprigs thyme small handful fresh oregano salt, pepper 600g small new potatoes 750g young broad beans (unshelled weight) 750g garden peas (unshelled weight) bunch of spring onions, white bulbs only 80g butter 4 tbsp freshly chopped mint

Method

1 Preheat the oven to 220°C
Place lamb In a snug fitting deep roasting tin, rub with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, sprinkle with the herbs, sliced shallots and garlic. Pour over the wine and seal tightly with foil. Move it to the oven and immediately turn the heat down to 170°C. Cook for 3 hours then remove the foil, baste and cook a further 15 minutes until browning, remove, cover and leave to rest in a warm place.

2 Boil the new potatoes in salted water and while doing so prepare the peas and broad beans. Once cooked, drain and crush briefly before folding in half of the butter and half the freshly chopped mint. Keep warm.

3 Shell the peas and broad beans. Trim the base then the green leaves from the spring onions (save for a salad) leaving only the bulbs - peel. Melt the remaining butter in a large saucepan, add the spring onion bulbs, shelled peas and broad beans together with a pinch of sugar, a teaspoon of salt and a splash of water. Cover and braise over low heat for about 8 - 10 minutes or until all are tender, fold in the remaining chopped mint.

4 Shred the lamb with two forks and serve with some of its own sauce together with crushed potatoes and braised, minted, summer vegetables