This crowd-pleaser involves minimal hands-on time and is full of fruity flavour.

Put another way, let the oven do the work for you while you get on with the rest of your new year menu.

Garnish with plenty of fresh green herbs.

Pulled pomegranate lamb

Pulled pomegranate lamb (Photo: Sarah Mann-Yeager)

Method:

• Ask your butcher to separate the knuckle of lamb from the main part or use a sharp knife and remove it yourself. Place the lamb in a large bag (or a large, lidded dish) with the garlic, bay leaves, parsley, rosemary, thyme, lemon, black pepper, za’atar and oil and allow to marinate for 12 - 24 hours.

• Remove the lamb from the fridge 45 minutes before you want to start cooking so it comes to room temperature. Heat your oven to 130°C.

• Tip the lamb with all its seasonings into the pan or the foil dish and add the water. Cover tightly with foil or with the lid and place in the oven for approximately 4 - 4½ hours.

• Remove the dish from the oven and carefully scrape the seasonings away from the lamb. Shred the meat with two forks pulling the meat away from the bone, removing the fat and sinews, and place in an ovenproof container.

• Once all the lamb is shredded, add 3 - 4 tablespoons of the pan juices to the shredded meat. At this point you can either cool and refrigerate the lamb or progress to the next step if serving immediately.

• Drizzle the warm (or warmed) lamb with 2 tbsp of pomegranate molasses, add ¾ of the chopped herbs and ¾ of the pomegranate seeds and stir through.

• Put the pulled lamb into a serving dish and drizzle with the remainder of the pomegranate molasses and sprinkle over the rest of the garnish.

louismann.co.uk / thebutchersdaughter.org