Moroccan lamb shanks
Lamb shanks are a beloved Kiwi classic, and it’s not hard to see why. Although the shank is one of the least tender parts of the lamb (meaning it has excellent flavour), when it’s slow-cooked, it falls off the bone. We’ve put a Moroccan twist on this recipe – the lovely hum of all those delicious aromatic spices will warm you up on even the chilliest of evenings.
Ingredients
Method
Ingredients
Lamb
- 4 Quality Mark lamb shanks
- 2 onion, chopped
- 5 garlic cloves, crushed
- 3cm knob fresh ginger, grated
- 1 tbsp ground coriander
- 1 tbsp ground turmeric
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp white pepper
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- 2 cups beef stock
- ½ cup tomato paste
- 400g chopped tomatoes
- ¾ cup plain unsweetened yoghurt
- 1 carrot, finely chopped or grated
- Grated zest of 1 lemon
- 1 cup dried apricots
Couscous
- 1 1/2 cups couscous
- 1 cup flaked blanched almonds, toasted
- ½ cup fresh coriander leaves, roughly chopped
Method
- Bring lamb out of the fridge an hour before cooking. Preheat oven to 140°C conventional bake.
- Cut through the tendon that connects the meat to the bone at the bottom of the shank – this will allow the meat to bunch up nicely. Brush the shanks with oil and season.
- Heat a little oil in a large frying pan over a high heat. Sear the shanks, two at a time, to brown all over. Set aside in a large casserole dish with a lid.
- Reduce the heat to medium, add a little more oil to the pan along with the onion and cook, stirring for 5 minutes to soften.
- Add the garlic, ginger, spices and pepper and cook for another 2 minutes. Continue stirring so the spices don’t stick and burn.
- Turn up the heat, add the stock and tomato paste, bring to a rapid simmer and scrape up any bits of caramelised meat stuck to the bottom.
- Add the tomatoes, yoghurt, carrot, lemon zest and stir.
- Pour over the shanks, cover and cook in the oven for 2 1/2 - 3 hours. Add the apricots half way through cooking.
- Remove from the oven and gently remove the shanks from the sauce (careful as they will be very delicate) and set aside covered in foil. If the sauce needs thickening, transfer to a saucepan, add 1/4 cup water mixed with 2 teaspoons cornflour and simmer for 5-10 minutes until thickened.
- Cook the couscous according to packet directions. Just before serving, stir through half the almonds and herbs.
- Serve lamb shanks with cooked couscous.