Lancashire Hotpot with Braised Red Cabbage

Reading the BBC's Good Food magazine the other day I felt the need to make Lancashire Hotpot! So this is yet another of James Martin's recipes.

The last time I'd had Lancashire hotpot was about 1989 when I worked in Warrington in Cheshire. At the time I remember thinking it was all very strange that they served beetroot with it.

I don't know why I thought it strange as it went really well with the dish. Just that at the time, having just moved 'up north' from London, I'd never heard of such a thing before.

I served mine with braised red cabbage which was really lovely. It went very well with the hotpot. The recipe for the cabbage is below.

So, on with the recipe. This is my version of James Martin's excellent recipe.

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You will need:

100g butter - divided into three
4 lambs kidneys - cored and cut into bite sized pieces
700g lamb - I used boneless lamb steaks - cut into large chunks2 medium onions - chopped
4 carrots - peeled and sliced
30g plain flour
3 tsp Worcestershire sauce
400ml of chicken stock
2 bay leaves
900g potatoes - peeled and sliced really thinly (best to use a mandolin)

How to do it:
Preheat the oven to 170C/325F or Gas 3

Heat a third of the butter in a large skillet or frying pan and brown the lamb in batches, once done add them to the casserole dish. Now brown the kidneys and add those to the casserole.

Fry the onions and carrots in the pan in another third of the butter

until nice and golden. Sprinkle over the flour and allow to cook for a couple of minutes, shake over the Worcestershire sauce, pour in the stock, then bring to the boil.

Add all of this to the casserole along with the bay leaves.

Arrange the sliced potatoes on top of the meat and dot with a little more butter.

Now cover the casserole with it's lid or some foil, and place in the oven for about 2 hours until the potatoes are cooked through. 

**If you are going to make the braised red cabbage, now is a good time to get it ready, as it will take 1 and a half hours to cook.

Melt the remaining butter and turn the heat of your oven up, remove the lid from the casserole and brush the potatoes with the melted butter.

Put the dish back into the oven, uncovered for about 1/2 an hour to brown the potatoes.

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For the Braised Red Cabbage:

1 small red cabbage - cored and sliced
1 red onion - finely chopped
1 firm apple - peeled and thick sliced
50g unsalted butter - cut into small pieces
150ml chicken stock (Knorr stock cube)
1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons clear honey
2 tablespoons demerara sugar
1 tablespoon of pomegranate molasses
a good dollop of red currant jelly
1 x bay leaf
a sprig thyme
salt and pepper to season

How to do it:

Mix together all of the ingredients. Put the lot into a shallow roasting tray and cover with foil. Place in the oven on the bottom shelf with the hotpot on the middle shelf. Cook for about 1½ hours, stirring regularly, until most of the liquid has evaporated. Add a little more chicken stock if you think it's getting too dry.

Taste for seasoning, stir in a little more sugar if required. Remove the bay leaf and sprig of thyme and serve.

The picture below shows the cabbage ready for the oven.