Serve with some warm couscous and some crusty bread.
Ingredients
Serves 4
Prep/Cook time: Approx 2 ½ - 3 hours
- 4 Lamb shanks
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 small onions - finely sliced
- 2 cloves garlic - finely chopped
- 1 tbsp ground ginger
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp toasted fennel seeds
- 1 tbsp smoked paprika
- 1 stick cinnamon
- 3 tbsp roughly chopped parsley
- 900 ml chicken/beef stock
- 400g tin chopped tomatoes
- 1 tbsp tomato purée
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 lemon, juice & zested
- 125g dried apricots, roughly chopped
- 100g golden raisins
- Salt & pepper
Method
- Remove lamb from refrigerator 1 hour prior to cooking to bring to room temperature.
- Preheat oven to 150°C
- Heat the oil in a large heavy casserole dish over high heat. Traditionally this is done in an actual Tagine dish but it's not something we all have.
- Season well and sear/fry the lamb shanks in batches until brown all over. Remove lamb from the dish and set aside to until needed.
- Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring, for approx 5 minutes or until onion is soft but not coloured.
- Add all your spices and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly so it doesn't burn or stick.
- Add the tomato purée and coat the onions and spices. Cook out the purée briefly.
- Add the lamb shanks, stock, honey, apricots, raisins and chopped tomatoes and bring to the boil.
- Cover with a lid and place in the oven for 2 to 2 ½ hours or until lamb is very tender and falling off the bone.
- Add the chopped parsley, lemon zest, juice and check the seasoning. You could also add a drained tin of chickpeas to this to bulk it out.
- Serve with some warm couscous and some crusty bread.
