With the wind howling through the trees outside my window, dumping great piles of soggy if gloriously coloured leaves on the doorstep, thoughts of deeply warming food invade. For this months Combinations little wine and food matching challenge, a slow cooked stew seems apt.

The recipe, below, is taken from the November issue of Delicious – lamb shoulder marinaded in garlic and rosemary, cooked for a couple of hours until the succulent meat falls from the bone and served with a gravy spiked with redcurrant sauce. A red wine is the immediate, perhaps obvious, wine choice; something mellow but rich…

Rosemary and Redcurrant Lamb Shoulder with Winter Vegetables. (serves 6).
3 garlic cloves
2 fresh rosemary springs, leave picked and chopped
12 black peppercorns
1.5kg whole bone in shoulder lamb
2 tbsp olive oil
12 small shallots
2 large parsnips cut into eighths
3 large carrots cut into eighths
2 tbsp plain flour
1 litre lamb stock
300g can green lentils drained and rinsed
125g redcurrant sauce with port
Fresh mint to garnish
make a paste with the garlic, rosemary, peppercorns and pinch of salt. Spread all over lamb and marinate for at least 30 minutes or overnight.
oven to 180C/fan160/ Remove and reserve paste. Brown lamb on all sides in a flameproof casserole in the 1tbsp oil. Remove joint. Reduce heat add remaining olive oil, reserved paste, shallots, parsnips and carrots. Cook for about 10 minutes until vegetables are turning colour.
Add the flour and cook 1 minute. Gradually stir in stock and bring to the boil. Return the lamb to the dish, cover with a lid and put in the oven for 2 hours.
Remove from oven, lift out lamb and cover it with foil. Stir in the lentils and redcurrant sauce into the vegetables and gravy. Check seasoning.
Serve with Mint Pesto Mash (mash potato with olive oil, mashed mint leaves and Parmesan stirred in).