A trip to Morocco

Hi everyone

My husband loves lamb and every now and then he feels like a spiced lamb shank recipe we have used and developed for a few years now. Its a winter dish for sure in this house. The traditional recipe suggests cooking in a tagine for 3 hours but I find if I put all the ingredients in a slow cooker in the morning before I start work its amazing after 6 to 8 hours with no effort or supervision. Note this recipe can be halved for a smaller dinner. Although this dish is wonderful the next day after the flavours have infused. Just make sure not to over crowd the pot.

8 lamb shanks - or the cheaper knuckles will do
2 onions sliced
4 cloves of garlic 
4 cups of beef stock
4 tablespoons ras el hanout (a spice mix - Ive put my version of it further down)
1/2 cup honey
3/4 cup of raisins
sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Basically I put everything bar the lamb into the slow cooker and mix together. I then add the lamb one at a time and coat the lamb. Cook the dish for 6 to 8 hours on high. Checking occasionally to move the lamb around to ensure each gets time in the liquid to cook. If the lamb isnt falling of the bone tender at that point you may want to place in a pot and simmer for that last hour. Once the lamb is cooked take it out of the pot and reduce the sauce down for half an hour until thickened and syrupy. Put the lamb back in.

If you dont have a slow cooker then put all the ingredients in a large pot and bring to the boil then simmer for 3 hours. Checking as per the slow cooker to make sure the lamb has time in the juice. 

Serve with couscous. I usually cook with a mix of orange juice and chicken stock and add some chopped apricots and toasted pistachios. Drizzled with a little honey and some greek yogurt on the side.

Ras al hanout

Ras al hanout is a middle eastern mix of spices. I suppose you can use the pre made supermarket blends but its so much nicer to make our own. My combinations vary but for this dish I like a relatively fragrant mix with cardamom and star anise

2 teaspoon each 2 star anise, cardamom seeds, fennel seeds, cumin seeds and coriander seeds - toast and grind in a pestle and mortar or processor. If you dont have the seeds use ground spices but reduce by half.
2 teaspoons each ground turmeric and cinnamon
1 tablespoon each sweet paprika and ginger
1 teaspoon each ground nutmeg, cloves, allspice
1/2 teaspoon each sea salt, ground black pepper and cayenne pepper

Combine in a jar and use in moroccan dishes

Enjoy xx