Levi Roots

Caribbean Lamb Shanks

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Preparation info

  • Difficulty

    Medium

  • Serves

    4

Appears in

Caribbean Food Made Easy

Caribbean Food Made Easy

By Levi Roots

Published 2009

  • About

This is one of my favourite dishes in the book – a real winter-warmer for cold weather, and fabulocious in the summer too. Sweet potatoes are a Caribbean staple and the orange ones are a great colour in this dish, but you could use parsnips instead. Serve it with fluffy Pumpkin Rice. Fantastic!

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp sunflower or groundnut oil
  • 3 banana shallots or 2 onions, chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 3 carrots, cut into long, thin slices, about ½ cm (¼ in) thick
  • 4 lamb shanks
  • 2 tsp crushed allspice
  • salt and pepper
  • 200 ml (7fl oz) red wine
  • 300 ml (½ pint) beef stock
  • 500 g (1 lb 2 oz) sweet potato, peeled and cut into 5 cm (2 in) chunks
  • 2 tbsp tomato pureé
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 hot chillies (ideally Scotch bonnet or red Thai bird’s eye), 1 cut in half
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 3 sprigs of thyme
  • 2 tbsp fresh coriander leaves, to garnish (optional)

Method

  • Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F/gas mark 3. Wash the meat and pat it dry with kitchen paper.
  • In a large, lidded casserole dish, heat half the oil. Add the shallots, onions, garlic and carrots and cook gently to soften for 5–10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  • Meanwhile, season the shanks by rubbing with the allspice, salt and pepper. Heat the rest of the oil in a large frying pan. Thoroughly brown the shanks on all sides. Add the browned shanks to the softened vegetables.
  • Deglaze the frying pan with the red wine and stock by adding the liquids and stirring until any brown residue from the shanks dissolves. Add this liquid to the casserole dish.
  • Add the rest of the ingredients (apart from the coriander) to the casserole dish and stir it all around. Put a lid on the casserole and put in the preheated oven. Cook for 2½ hours, or until cooked through, stirring occasionally. Served sprinkled with fresh coriander, if you like. Fantastic!

© 2009 Levi Roots. All rights reserved.