SEASONED BLEATINGS

Tender, succulent lamb shanks, fit for anyone’s birthday.

On a bed mash, to bring a smile to your face and joy to your belly. All hail the messiah (Jamie Oliver).
PLEASE NOTE — if meat is not your thing, remove the lamb component from this dish.

Enjoy 😉

Ingredients

2-3 smoked ancho chillies (use 1 tsp chipotle chilli powder if you can’t get ancho chillies)
1 large handful of raisins
285 ml unsweetened apple juice
4 lamb shanks
Olive oil
3 red onions
8 cloves of garlic
2-3 fresh red chillies
1 heaped teaspoon smoked paprika
3 fresh bay leaves
2-4 sprigs of fresh rosemary
1 x 400 g tin of plum tomatoes
750 ml organic chicken stock, optional
Red Wine Vinegar

Method

Preheat the oven‚ as high as it will go.

Put the dried chillies, raisins and apple juice in a bowl, then set aside.

Put the lamb shanks in a roasting tray and rub all over with oil, sea salt and black pepper. Put them in the oven for 20 minutes.
As they are browning, peel and finely chop the onions, peel and finely slice the garlic, then halve and deseed the chillies.

Grab a casserole pan that will fit the shanks quite snugly ‚about 24cm in diameter and 10cm deep. Put it on a medium heat and add a lug of olive oil, the onions, garlic, fresh chilli, smoked paprika, bay leaves and rosemary. Leave to sweat for about 10 minutes.

Once the onions have softened, put the re-hydrated chillies and raisins into a food processor or liquidiser, along with any leftover apple juice, then blitz (feel free to sneak in a swig of red wine or bourbon here!) until you‚ have got a paste. Stir this into your onions.

Take your shanks out of the oven and turn the temperature down to 140ºC.
Add the shanks to the casserole pan along with your tinned tomatoes and stock (if using) or equal amounts of water

Stir everything together, cover and put in the oven to stew for 2 hours 30 minutes to 3 hours, or until the meat is falling off the bone and the sauce is thick, topping up with water or stock as you go. Take it out of the oven, have a taste and season with salt and pepper and a dash of vinegar.

Serve with steamed greens, mash, flatbreads, or whatever you fancy really!