Oven-Braised Lamb Neck — Fall-Off-the-Bone Low-and-Slow Lamb

Pat the lamb neck slices dry with paper towels and rub all sides with salt and black pepper. Feel between the bones and remove any clotted blood and bone fragments.

Preheat the oven to 160°C / 320°F. Heat the sunflower oil in a wide pan until nearly smoking. Working in two batches without crowding, brown the lamb neck on all sides. Arrange the seared pieces in a deep, lidded ovenproof dish.

In the same pan, cook the half-moon-sliced onion in the fat released by the meat until soft. Add the garlic and sliced pepper. Stir in the pepper paste and cook until its raw smell fades, then add the grated tomato, Turkish red pepper flakes, thyme, and water. Bring to a boil, scraping up the browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pan with a spoon, then pour the sauce over the meat.

Cover the dish with its lid or seal it tightly with two layers of foil, and cook for 150 minutes. During the ninetieth minute, open the dish once to check the liquid; if it has dropped to halfway up the meat, add 100 ml boiling water. At the end of the cooking time, the meat should have pulled back from the ends of the bones.

Remove the lid, raise the oven temperature to 200°C / 390°F, and cook for 20 minutes more. Remove the dish when the exposed surfaces of the meat have browned and the sauce has reduced by half.

Remove the dish from the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes; this is inactive time. Use two forks to pull the lamb from the bones, then feel along the neck vertebrae with your fingers and remove any small bone fragments. Return the pulled meat to the sauce, stir, and serve with bulgur pilaf.