Moroccan Lamb Shanks

When you have a bit of time on your hands this is a beauty. It's not difficult and you don't need to be in the kitchen much, but you do need to make sure you have 24 hours for marinating and then 5 for cooking - so you are starting dinner the morning of the day before you are eating it, which can be difficult to get your head around. Despite that it was absolutely worth every minute I spent and got 5 stars from Noel, Connor and Sam!

Ingredients

Dry Rub

2 tsp cayenne pepper (I accidentally made these tbsp so my version was a bit spicier)

3 tbsp paprika

3 tbsp ground ginger

1 tbsp tumeric

2 tsp ground cinnamon

Mix all dry ingredients together. Rub half the spice mix over shanks and leave to marinade in the fridge for 24 hours. Reserve the other half and seal.

Sauce

Lug of olive oil

6 lamb shanks

1 carrot - chopped

2 celery sticks - chopped

2 onions - chopped

4 cloves of garlic - crushed

1/2 a litre of tomato juice

400g tin of chopped tomatoes

125g dried apricots - halved

75g dried dates chopped

75g sultanas

750ml vegetable stock

2 tbsp honey

To serve

Flaked almonds

Fresh coriander

Fresh parsley

Method

Heat the oil over a medium heat in a large pot and add the onion, garlic, carrot and celery and sweat for a few minutes. Add the lamb shanks and the rest of the dry spice rub to the pot, and brown the lamb shanks.

Put the shanks, vegetables, tomato juice, tinned tomatoes, dired apricots, dates, sultanas, vegetable stock and honey into a large casserole dish (I used a roasting pan and sealed with 3 layers of foil). Cover and bake at 160C for 4 hours or until the meat comes away from the bone.

Toast the almonds in a little butter and chop the coriander and parsley.

Serve the lamb shanks with a little sauce over mashed potatoes (or cous cous if you prefer) and sprinkle with the almonds, coriander and parsley. I served lightly steamed green beans on the side.

Thanks to Jeremy Dempsey and GT for the inspiration, this is hearty winter food with a twist. Enjoy xx

#familydinner #weekendfair #moroccan #spicy #comfortfood #yum #time