Moroccan Braised Lamb Shanks
Serves 6
This is a wonderfully warming spicy dish. Roasting the whole spices ensures you get a deep flavour throughout the stew. The recipes requires a spice grinder, if you do not have one use a pestle & mortar but try to get the spices as fine as possible. You can also use a coffee grinder but you may not want to grind your coffee afterwards!
Serve with couscous or mashed potato.
Ingredients
6 lamb shanks
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp caraway seeds
2 whole star anise
2 cinnamon sticks
100ml olive oil
2 white onions sliced
4 carrots peeled & diced
4 parsnips peeled & diced
2 celery sticks diced
3 tins chopped tomatoes
6 cloves garlic sliced
1 tbsp rose harissa (or to taste)
Juice & zest from 1 lemon
250g green olives
Salt & Pepper
Method
Pre Heat the oven to 220º C / 425º F / Gas Mark 7
Put the lamb shanks in a large roasting tin, season with salt & pepper and roast in the oven for 40 minutes, turning half way through cooking.
In a separate baking tray add all the spices and roast for about 5 minutes until brown, keep checking, as you don't want them to burn. Grind the spices in a spice grinder.
Meanwhile in a large oven proof casserole dish gently fry the onions in the olive oil until soft, add the carrots, celery and parsnips and continue to cook for 5 minutes.
Add the tomatoes, garlic, lemon juice & zest, Harissa and olives, roasted spices and bring to the boil.
If the lamb shanks are still cooking set the casserole dish aside, once ready add the lambe shanks to the vegetables discarding as much fat as possible.
Add enough water to cover the lamb shanks and cover with a lid.
Braise for about 2 hours in the oven at 190º C / 375º F / Gas Mark 5. Check once in a while to ensure that there is enough liquid, add a little more water as necessary. The lamb is ready when it is almost falling off the bone, if the stew is too thin remove the lid for the last 15 minutes of cooking.
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