Nici Wickes: Moroccan spiced Lamb Shanks & Lentils

This hearty one-pot dinner is just the thing to warm you up and whilst it’s cooking you can dream of far-off lands as the aroma of Moroccan spices waft around your kitchen. 

Serves 2 

 

Ingredients 

2 tbsp. olive oil 

1 large onion, peeled and sliced thinly 

2 tsps. ground coriander 

1 tsp smoked paprika 

1 tsp ground cumin 

1 tsp ground ginger 

5 cm stick cinnamon or 1 tsp ground cinnamon 

2 lamb shanks 

1-2 carrots, roughly chopped 

2 cm piece lemon peel 

Water 

1 tsp sea salt + decent grind black pepper 

1 large orange kūmara, peeled and chopped into large chunks 

½ can lentils, drained and rinsed 

 

Method 

Heat oil in a large ovenproof deep pan or pot, like a le Creuset. Fry onions until softened then add in the spices and cook for 1 minute or so. Add in lamb shanks, carrots and lemon peel and give it all a stir. Add in enough water to just about cover the shanks and add in salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer on the stove top while you heat oven to 180 C. 

Cover tightly with a lid or foil and place in oven for 1 hour. 

After an hour, give it another stir, add in the kūmara and lentils, cover again and cook for a further 1.5-2 hours or until lamb is falling away from the bone. 

Serve up, scatter with some fresh coriander and serve with a salad and/or some crusty bread to soak up the juices. Enjoy! 

Make it your own 

Use lamb shoulder chops instead of shanks. 

Add some prunes if you like that sort of thing. 

Leave out the lentils and serve with couscous instead. 

Potato or pumpkin will work just as well as the kūmara. 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks at b OH.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Here you go.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
Auntie Barb's going to be stoked. She's gigging on the
fan mail this morning. On the text Jack, your aunt
should be on radio. A perfect newscast to kick off
the show this morning, says Carol. Thank you, Carol. You
know what I'm going to do. I'm gonna screenshot that
how I'm going to send that to Andie Barbe. She's
going to be delighted. It's going to make her Morning
ninety ninety two.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
If you want to.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Flick us a message, I Cook. Nikki Wix is here
with a perfect winter warmer this morning. Hey Nikki, Hey,
good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
I just got a question. Is am I now speaking
to Barb's nephew.

Speaker 4 (00:41):
Are youre we broadcaster Auntie bar Yeah, yeah, yeah, And
I love her nephews having a crack at the broadcasting
lark as well.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
But yeah, that's great. Good I'm having a crack at
year a winter warmer, beautiful one pot dinner Moroccan spiced
lamb shanks and lentils. I nearly took that and lentils
out of the title, Jack because some people have just
got a thing about lentils, but I have come around
to them in a big way. I just love them.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
I think they're delicious. How could you have a thing
about lentils. It's such a good way to add richness
and fiber, richness.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Fiber and protein, and people find them a little bit
earthy in the taste. This is a great dish to
give them a crack because I've got loads of spices
in here, and you know, spices are also the way
to a really fantastic dinner jack without spending a fortune spices,
and I'm talking dried spices here. I'm not talking about
spending lots of money on the fresh versions of any

(01:41):
of this. We've got coriander, We've got smoked paprika, which
you could lose if you wanted of your neat if
you haven't got all of these cumin. We've got ginger
in here. We've got cinnamon. Most of us have got
those in our cupboard. And that just makes this dish
absolutely Before all we're joinings, we're heating ail in a
big oven proof pottle pan like a casserole dish something

(02:03):
like that. Fry some onions off until they're a little
bit soft. And I've used sort of large onion or
two smaller ones here, sliced kind of thinly, and it
adding the spices. And I've got a little quote here,
and I wish they were my words, they're not. They're
the words of Sarah Jampol, and she's right of a
bon appetite, and she says, rale spices are like shy friends.

(02:23):
It takes a little effort to draw them out of
their shell to see their true colors. Toasting your spices
in a dry heat is a good start, a friendly wave,
if you will. But frying those spices and oil is
the ultimate icebreaker, and that is very true for these,
So pop those in your pot and you'll just it
gets rid of that sort of dusty flavor. Add a

(02:44):
couple of lamb shanks and there this recipe seruves two,
So two lamb shanks. You could use shoulder chops if
you like, for this a little bit cheaper again, one carrot,
decent sort of sized carrot, just chopped up roughly in there,
and a little piece of lemon peel as well. Jack
and I do that in lieu of preserved lemon, which
is a wonderful Moroccan flavor, great ingredient that get to use.

(03:06):
It's very complex flavor. But you could just use a
sort of I don't know, like a half a thumb
sized piece of lemon peel. Chuck it all in there,
give it all a bit of a stir, and then
add in enough water to just about sort of cover
the shanks. Add in a bit of salt and pepper.
Bring it all up to a silver just to give
it a bit of a nudge on the stovetop, and
then heat and then cook it in your oven at

(03:27):
one hundred and eighty warms the house all that sort
of thing. It does need a nice tight lid on
it for about an hour. Yeah, After an hour, give
it another stir and add in large orange cumra. You
could use pumpkin, You could use potato in there, just
you know, nice big chunks of that. And also half
a can of drained lentils. They can be pea ones
which is pu y, or just regular brown lentils, green lentes,

(03:51):
whatever will work for you. Pop those in, cover it
again and cook for another sort of another hour, maybe
an hour and a half. So it's a long slow
cook the but you want that lamb absolutely falling away
from the bone. So if you're using shoulder chops, probably
slightly less time than if you using the shanks. I
serve them up with some fresh corienne sort of tossed
over it lovely salad or some crusty bread to soak

(04:14):
up the juices. You could use, of course course if
you wanted to stay and with the Moroccan cuisine. But
it's just really warming and beautiful and you haven't had
to have loads of fresh ingredients to make this happen.
Those spices can hang around in your cupboard for a
good time, So you know all those things and the cupbod,
wouldn't you.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
Yeah, I mean I just think Komen is like the
is the absolute stuff that I just check it and
everything much. It's like a fan, but not as much
of a fan. And so you know, very occasionally I'll
just be home for dinner by myself, and I always
like I'll just do something like fry like a single
can of chickpeas and like the most ob seen quantity

(04:55):
of ground cooman you can possibly imagine a little bit
of like you know, a little bit of garlic in there,
or quite a bit of garlic in there a little
bit of you know, maybe coconut milk or something that
and the way you go. I just think Komen is
amazing slice.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
Of olive oil, squeeze and juice. If you're not a
fan of cuman some people find it quite a dusty quality,
then I would recommend you start with Cuman seeds and
because they just give you the more concentrated little bits
of flavor. But yeah, no, this is a beautiful. It
just saves, you know, It's just it's just a bit
of a different style than of tomato based, you know, beautiful.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
Very quickly, I was like, I was just thinking to myself,
where does the name poo you come from? It's it's French,
I think, but I just google that.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
Yeah, absolutely, so those are French.

Speaker 3 (05:43):
And it's a small distinct volcanic cone in ov Gee
in France. So there you go, is a small extinct
volcan So it's like it's like a monga foe, it's
like Mount Eden, but there you go in in France.
So there you go, there you go.

Speaker 2 (05:59):
Well that sounds also they're more expensive. They were always
more expensive, but they're kind of tighter and they're less mushy,
and I think we say plee, I think pee. Yeah,
very goodby.

Speaker 3 (06:12):
Thank you so much. We will catch you soon, and
we'll make sure that amazing sounding recipe is up and
available on the News Talks. It'd be website so you
can cook along at home.

Speaker 1 (06:20):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen live
to News Talks it'd be from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio