Proper Lancashire Hot Pot

I love a bit of neck!  It’s a woefully under used cut of meat but deliciously good to cook with.  It has a near perfect mix of fat and meat which lends it well to a variety of cooking techniques.  I love slow cooking it but it grills or fries well and is a good substitute for chops or cutlets for a cheaper meal.

For me Mutton has the most flavour but it’s easier to get hold of rocking horse shit than a good bit of Mutton these days without knowing a good butcher.  If you do your shop at a reputable supermarket you’ll easily find Lamb neck and its ideal for a Lancashire hot pot.

The humble hot pot is part of that dying breed of traditional British food.   Sadly it’s not that fashionable anymore and disappearing from menus across the country in favour of more cosmopolitan dishes.

This recipe takes a bit of time to cook but the preparation is simple and the finished dish is definitely worth the wait.  It’s great for Sundays instead of a roast and in my opinion it’s a bit of a treat.

Ingredients:

2 Lamb Neck Fillets

2 Good Sized Carrots

1 Good sized Swede

1 Parsnip

1 Large Onion

500ml of well reduced Lamb Stock (you can use beef or chicken if you have fresh or you can get away with a couple of cubes if you have to...)

1 Large Potato for the topping

Butter to brown the meat and some left over to glaze the potato.

Start by peeling everything apart from the potato, chop it all into 1 inch cubes and put to the side.  Chop the neck into 1 inch rounds and dust in seasoned flour.  Get a pan onto the heat and melt a knob of the butter in the pan.  Throw your meat into the pan to brown well on all sides.

Add your vegetables for a minute to put some colour on them as well.  Throw in your stock and cook down till the veg has begun to soften.  It’s at this point you want to then transfer this into an oven proof dish or “HOT POT”. 

Peel and slice the potato into as fine rounds as you can.  If I was in a professional kitchen I’d have used a Mandolin for this and probably lost the end of my fingers but you want the slices to be as paper thin as you can get it...

Arrange the potato in an aesthetically pleasing manner to form a lid and glaze with a little melted butter.  Put the meaty goodness in the oven for an hour or so on a medium heat and sit back and relax.  Serve with something green and preferably a pint of bitter!