Lamb Shanks Casserole

I have been using deboned lamb shanks as a main source of red meat in our menu for several years now, since they became available in your Coles supermarket. Lamb shanks easy to cook in any combination with vegetables. I use them to make thick beetroot soup with vegetables and canned beans or as casserole with different vegetables. The meat is always tender and juicy. Surprisingly, it takes only an hour or hour and a half to get meat to the stage that it falls apart. The mix of vegetables and their quantity depends on what type of dish you want. When cooked with minimal amount of vegetables to get tasty and thick sauce the dish can be served on bed of rice, pasta, beans, lentils, potato mash or just steamed vegetables.

At the time I made this dish we had 2 large bags of home grown coriander. So I used thick stems that did not go into pesto preparation to cook lamb.

We store the excess of coriander refrigerated for up to 6 weeks, washed, dried and zip-locked in a plastic bag. For longer storage I chop coriander and freeze it. Chopped coriander is excellent to use in vegetable soups and casseroles.

Ingredients:

• 1 pack (500-600g deboned lamb shanks), 3-4 pieces, depending on their size
• 2 onions, sliced in semi-circles
• 3 grated carrots
• 1 peeled and thinly sliced eggplant
• bunch of coriander stems (optional)
• several cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 chilli (I used hot with seeds), chopped
• pinch of cumin, fennel and caraway seeds each
• 1-2 cloves
• olive and coconut oil, 1 table spoon each
• sea salt and black pepper for seasoning

Preparation:

• heat the mixture of olive and coconut oil in a deep casserole pan with thick bottom
• add seeds and sliced onion
• fry onion on medium heat for 2-3 minutes, season with sea salt and black pepper
• reduce heat to minimum and fry until translucent
• add cherry tomatoes, cut in halves, grated carrots and lamb, cut in chunks
• stir and fry on medium heat for 5 minutes
• add chopped coriander stems, chilli pepper and sliced eggplant
• cover with boiling water, season with sea salt
• cook until boiling point, reduce heat and cook simmering with lid for 60-90 minutes, until meat is very tender
• cook with or without lid last 30 minutes depending on how thick you want your sauce
• I served lamb casserole on a bed of carrot rice and fresh vegetable salad

Fresh vegetable salad we make from juicy vegetables without dressing. In our latest version of the salad we added sliced papaya and avocado to a regular vegetables list.

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