Anything that says “fiery” definitely must have these hot stuff as one of the main ingredients … I’ve added a lot of these as we love it to be truly fiery … if you don’t like it spicy hot, then just use like 2 red & 2 green chillies
For the marinade, you will need, seeded & sliced red/green chillies (use amount that you are comfortable with), 2 tsp paprika, 2 cinnamon sticks (snapped in halves), 2 tsp dried oregano, 3 garlic cloves (peeled & roughly chopped), 1 tsp cumin seeds, 1 Tbsp olive oil and salt & freshly ground pepper
4 lamb shanks (one shank per person) … I’m, however, using boneless shin here 😉 …mix all the marinade ingredients together and pour over the meat
Rub the marinade mixture into the lamb so that it is well flavoured … you may cook the lamb straight away but if you have the time, leave it to marinate for at least an hour or better still, overnight
2 carrots … peeled & sliced … I sliced it chunky but you may sliced it into rounds if you prefer
1 onion … thickly sliced
2 bay leaves
You will need 1 x 750ml bottle of read wine + 500ml chicken stock
Pre-heat oven to 16ºC …. heat up a casserole dish/dutch oven on the hob and add a couple tablespoon of olive oil , brown the lamb in it for about 6 minutes until coloured on all sides … lift lamb out onto plate and set aside
Add into the pot the chillies and cinnamon sticks from the marinade and then add in the carrots, onion and bay leaves and brown for a minute or two
Pour in the wine to deglaze the pot, scraping up any bits from the bottom then bring to the boil and cook for 7 – 8 minutes to reduce the liquid by half
Return the lamb (and any retained juice) to the casserole, sitting it atop the carrots/onion mixture and pour in the chicken stock and bring to the boil and transfer, uncovered, to the preheated oven …. cook for 3 hours until the meat is tender and sauce reduced (if you find the top of the lamb looks like it is drying out, just baste and occasionally turn them)
Serve up the cooked lamb with some of the cooking juice spooned over it … garnish with some torn mint leaves, if you so desire (I personally actually had forgotten all about the garnish although I did have the torn mint leaves stand-by!!) … it is hard to take attractive pictures of meat braised in red wine as the dish become so dark . ..this picture certainly don’t do this lip-smacking dish justice … it is truly heavenly delish 😉 … some mashed potatoes or crusty loaf to soak up the juices would be ideal but we had it with some garlic fried rice since I had some cooked rice leftover from night before  🙂
Food Is Ready 