So with parts 1 & 2 taken up with cooking fish, we took a short pause while I sorted the main course.
This took 10 hours to cook and, while it was something very similar to what I’d done the previous year, I knew it was something the ageing, creaking birthday boy would like – slow-roasted sticky, spicy lamb shanks.
Slow cooker – definitely worth investing in one of these…
Like in a previous blog, cooking lamb slowly is key – and using a slow cooker can produce excellent results. One of the tricks is not to put the veg in too early (though in this instance it didn’t matter) if you want them to retain any size, form or shape. In fact, if possible, give any vegetables a wide swerve of the slow cooker. It often reduces them to tasteless, goodness-free mush.
As with the leg of lamb, seal the shanks (four – one for each) in a pan of hot oil, and place in the slow cooker with the setting on low. Add to this three chopped onions, a couple of chopped (not smashed) garlic cloves, a cinnamon stick – crunched, a couple of teaspoons of cumin and coriander seeds – crushed, a couple of chillies, a litre of chicken stock, a couple of tins of tomatoes, plus a little salt and a generous amount of pepper. For a counter-balance to the spices, I added some sweetness in the form of half a dozen dried apricots and half a dozen dried figs, plus some pomegranate syrup.
This last ingredient was again something I found lurking at the back of the cupboard, alongside the jaggery (palm sugar – see fajita-fun.) I finally got to the bottom of where this stuff came from – it was Daisy’s idea of a loving Christmas present from Penge All-night Foodmarket on Sydenham Hight Street. No, really – don’t ask. It’s probably best I don’t go too much further into discussing our (loving) relationship on here…
Anyway, once the ingredients are in the slow cooker – and this was all done at about 10am – you really can just ‘fire and forget’. I allowed 9-10 hours for the lamb shanks to cook, and after about two hours, the smells coming from the pot were sensational (in the real sense – not the hyperbolic Alan Shearer sense). One thing you shouldn’t do with the slow cooker is stir the contents. Leave them be.
Getting closer to serving time, (i.e. after the cullen skink was put away – and a short rest having been called for), I put on some long-grain rice, in some frozen peas, a generous teaspoon of turmeric, a couple of cardamon pods and the merest dashette of cinnamon – plus the usual salt and pepper into the boiling water. I’d also cut some carrots into batons, and left them to bathe in a honey, mustard and ground coriander mix for a few minutes, before placing on the steamer above the rice.
The rice is boiled for 10 minutes, at which point I turn off the heat, and let the water absorb for a few minutes more, all the while still steaming the carrots.
Assuming you’ve got your timing right, you take out the lamb – very carefully – and place to one side for five minutes in a warm place. Strain the juice that the lamb has been cooking in, and add it to some butter and flour in a medium hot pan, and heat rapidly until nicely glazed and thickened.
If you’ve cooked the lamb right, it should fall off the bone very easily – so carefully plate up, with the onion (which held its form in the slow cooker) carrots and rice, and have the thickened gravy (or sauce) ready in a jug or boat on the side.
You’ll find the meat hardly needs any effort to cut, will be nicely spiced throughout and (Daisy said this, honestly – it’s not really me saying it) ‘melt in the mouth’.
A decent shiraz will accompany this meal quite nicely.
Again, let me know how else you can do lamb in a slow cooker – would love to hear it.
I’ll write about the final part, – part 4, the dessert – next.
Cheers, Al
PS – I learned a couple of things about Phil from this experience. One – he whined like rusty gate hinge when he saw figs (‘that’s sodding pudding, that is…’) in the lamb dish. And two – he ‘doesn’t touch skeletons’; in other words, anything on the bone is a no-no to him. I knew I should have fed him a Farley’s rusk…
Large Al's cookbook 
Apart from the pudding mixed in with the meat, it was a feast fit for a 47 year-old. The concept of slow cooking is one all blokes should be able to grasp, and it is a great way to impress a beau as it looks, smells and tastes like you knew what you were doing! Then again, Al is a past master, having produced many a carnivores’ delight, even with apricots, prunes, figs and whatnot chucked in. As for the skeleton, well, there simply is no need, it just takes up valuable meat space in the cooker.
Here you go, the beginners slow cook.
Cubed braising steak, spuds, onions, pearl barley. Brown the steak in hot pan with oil, peel the spuds, chop the onions into big bits. Lob it all in the slow cooker, with a handful of pearl barley, pour on some water, and crumble an Oxo cube in, add salt and pepper. Switch it on and wait for 10 hours, then eat.
Tip, pop into your local charity shop, you’ll pick up a slow cooker for a couple of quid 😉
Cheers, Phil.
I’d rather impress a belle than a beau, though.
You can take the boy out of Brighton……
If I had my choice I would put fruit in everything I eat and meat on the bone cannot be beaten, even if it was his birthday I’m glad you cooked it exactly as you did, it was fantastic xxxx