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Lamb shanks, with honey, chickpeas and spices

Recipe by Trish Deseine from Trish's Mediterranean Kitchen

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And how could any cook not be inspired when you look at all the array of spices in the market in Marseilles and the different varieties. And it pays off just listening to the people who sell them to you, because they’ve always got a million recipes to share. This is a lovely sweet and spicy North African influenced dish and the ingredient that gives it really that flavour is called Rás a la Nout, a Moroccan spice mix used in tagines, but today’s dish is with lamb shanks, browned all over in olive oil.

Serves 4

Ingredients

Four lamb shanks
Olive oil
carrots
onion
Fresh ginger
Spice mixture (rás a la nout if you can get it)
Tin of tomatoes
Tin of chick peas
Dried apricots, prunes and honey
Roasted almonds

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Method

Start by braising the lamb shanks. This should be a brisk enough process. We’re talking browning not braising. Three to four minutes should be enough to do the job. Put them aside to rest.
Give the pot a quick wipe to remove any excess oil and then put the heat back on under the pot with a little fresh olive oil and then in go onions, carrots, some ginger. You notice there’s no chilli in this, so it’s spicy without being hot. Then, the best bit is the spice mixture, quite a lot, about two or three tablespoons, a fantastic smell. It’s very subtle though, not like a hot curry. Next a tin of tomatoes, stir that, and put the lamb shanks back in. And then fill the casserole up with water to about three quarters to the top of the meat. Bring that back to the boil, put the lid on and put in a very slow oven, about a hundred and fifty, hundred and sixty degrees for about two hours, but if that’s two and a half hours it doesn’t really matter.
About twenty minutes before you serve the dish, you’re going to put some chickpeas in. It’s looking good! There's not an awful lot of room left now. The dish is finished off with some dried apricots, some prunes, some toasted almonds and for extra sweetness, a little honey.

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What do you think?

Julie July 2010

Well I would like to try this dish however Rás a la Nout does not come up at all when searching it on the internet (other than this page and a copy of this recipe) and the spices aren't given in the recipe. If you could link to what is in the spice mix, or how to get an approximation, it would be very helpful. I'm guessing a mixtue of cumin, coriander, pepper, maybe some saffron, cinnamon??

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