Lamb Shank Recipe
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Recipe Overview
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes plus 6-8 hours
Ingredients Needed
- 1.6kgs/3.5lbs lamb shanks (around 4-6)
- 2 teaspoons ground turmeric
- 2 teaspoons ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1-2 tablespoons of oil
- 2 white or brown onions
- 6 garlic cloves, peeled
- 4 tablespoons plain all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 2 cups/500ml pomegranate juice
- 125g/4ozs pomegranate molasses
- 1/2 cup/125ml/4flozs chicken broth
- 60g/2ozs honey (or to taste) can also use brown sugar
- 4 sprigs rosemary
- Salt and pepper for seasoning
- Pomegranate arils for serving
Step-By-Step Cooking Instructions
Preparing the Lamb
Step 1 - Season the lamb shanks with salt and pepper. Set the instant pot to saute for 20 minutes or place a frypan on medium heat and sear lamb shanks for 5 minutes on each side. Add the spices (turmeric, coriander, cumin, cinnamon) and fry in the oil still in the pan. Then add 1-2 tablespoons of oil and add the onions and garlic and sauté until softened. Add flour and cook for 30 seconds.
Slow Cooking
Step 2 - Then add the tomato paste, salt, pomegranate juice, pomegranate molasses, chicken broth, rosemary and honey. Change to slow cooker setting to high heat for 6 hours or low heat for 8 hours. Then lamb should be very soft and want to fall off the bone. Gently remove the lamb shanks from the sauce and place on a serving plate and decorate with pomegranate arils. If the sauce is thick enough for your liking serve as is. Otherwise if you want it thicker, set to sauté and simmer until the sauce has reduce to desired texture.
Personal Note
I'm not really loving how daylight savings has ended and how it gets so dark so early nowadays. I'm counting down the weeks until it starts again which admittedly is silly given how long we have and is 5 long months away! The only good thing is wearing boots and coats and slow braises like this.
We were walking Teddy and Milo in our neighbourhood at 5pm one day and it was getting dark but wasn't completely dark yet. We had these lamb shanks going in the slow cooker and I had made this cauliflower mash ready to serve (will share this recipe soon, it's so good!). We all had more layers on and I couldn't wait to come home and eat this.
"Is that a new house?" I said to Mr NQN pointing at a house that I swear I had never seen before. We have done this walk hundreds of times and the house was completely new to me. "No, it has been there forever," he said and I had to agree, it looked like a really old house. But how was it possible that I had never really seen it before? And while logic tells me that it has been there the entire time, I could have sworn it was new! I'm using the excuse that it was getting dark ;)
So tell me Dear Reader, do you ever walk around your neighbourhood and see "new" houses? What are your favourite things about autumn and winter?