Traditional Lancashire Hotpot

Traditionally this was cooked and wrapped in hay and blankets to keep it warm and became race goers fast food back in the day.  I'd rather eat this than plastic looking anaemic bread rolls filled with rubbish burgers - rant over! The recipe is based on a Delia classic but with a few tweaks, especially the mushroom ketchup. 

Ingredients

 900 g best end and middle neck of lamb, chopped into chop-sized pieces

 1 tablespoon groundnut or other flavourless oil

 Butter

 4 lambs' kidneys, cored, skinned and chopped fairly small

 350g onions, peeled halved and cut into 1 cm inch wedges

 1 tablespoon flour

 570ml hot water, mixed with 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
 1 teasp mushroom ketchup, optional

 1 bay leaf

 2 sprigs fresh thyme or 1 teasp dried thyme

 900g potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 cm slices

 Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 170°C.  Trim the lamb of any excess fat and wipe with kitchen paper. In a large frying pan, heat the oil and 5g butter until it is very hot, then brown the pieces of lamb two or three at a time until they all have a good brown crust. As they cook, remove them to a wide casserole. Brown the pieces of kidney too, and tuck these in amongst the meat.

Next, fry the onions adding a knob of butter to the pan if you need any extra fat – cooking them for about 10 minutes till they turn brown at the edges. Now stir in the flour to soak up the juices, then gradually add the hot water and Worcestershire sauce, stirring or whisking until flour and liquid are smoothly blended. Taste and season with salt and pepper and bring it up to simmering point, then pour it over the meat in the casserole. Add the bay leaf and thyme, then arrange the potato slices on top, in an overlapping pattern like slates on a roof. Season the potatoes and add a few dots  of butter here and there.

Cover with a tight-fitting lid and cook in the oven for 1½ hours, then remove the lid and cook for a further 50 minutes. To get a golden crispy top brush the potatoes with a little more butter and place the casserole under a hot grill they crisp up and brown beautifully. Alternatively, if you think they're not browning enough during cooking, you can turn the heat in the oven right up during the last 15 minutes. Remove the bay leaf and thyme sprigs before serving.