Braised lamb tacos on a wooden plank with with tomato salsa

Beer-braised lamb tacos with charred green tomato salsa

Preparation and cooking time
- Total time5 hrs
- + overnight marinating + resting
A little effort
Serves 8

Ingredients

1.5kg boned lamb shoulder
1 orange, zested and juiced
1 lime, juiced
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tbsp medium chilli powder
2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp smoked paprika
2 tsp garlic granules
1 tsp sea salt flakes
(such as Sierra Nevada) pale ale, 200ml

SALSA

4 jalapeño chillies
1 red onion, peeled and quartered
2 cloves garlic, skin on
300g green tomatoes
1 tsp caster sugar
a small bunch coriander, chopped
2 limes, juiced

BLACK BEAN SALAD

1 red onion, finely chopped
2 x 400g tins black beans, rinsed and drained
2 avocados, diced
10 radishes, sliced
1 lime, juiced

TO SERVE

16 corn tortillas
200g tub soured cream
to serve coriander leaves

Method

STEP 1
If the lamb joint is tied, remove the string and discard. Put the lamb in a large roasting tin, skin-side down. Use a sharp knife to slash into the meat a few times. Mix the orange juice and zest and lime juice with the spices and a good pinch of salt then rub all over the flesh. Cover and leave in the fridge to marinate overnight.
STEP 2
The next day, heat the oven to 150C/fan 130C/gas 2. Flip the lamb so it is skin-side up. Season the skin with salt and lots of pepper. Pour the beer into the bottom of the tin. Cover with a double layer of foil, then cook for 4 hours.
STEP 3
To make the salsa, heat a griddle or heavy-based frying pan (or you can do this on the BBQ). Griddle the jalapeños until blackened on all sides, then drop onto a large sheet of foil and seal to make a parcel. Do the same with the onion, garlic and tomatoes, one by one, adding to the foil parcel (then resealing to keep the heat in) as they are charred. Let everything cool completely then de-stalk the chillies, remove the skin from the garlic cloves and cut the cores out of the tomatoes (and discard) and roughly chop. Put everything in a blender with the sugar, coriander and lime juice, and whizz until blended.
STEP 4
To finish the lamb, remove the foil, turn up the heat to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6 and cook for another hour. Check the liquid in the roasting tin – it should be quite reduced by now. If not, put the lamb on a plate to rest and reduce the liquid on the stove until glossy. Return the lamb and pull into large chunks, tossing through the sauce.
STEP 5
Toss the salad ingredients and serve with tortillas, lamb, salsa, soured cream and extra coriander.