Lamb Shank Nihari
Slow cooked lamb shanks made with your own homemade spice mix. This is a delicious dish, the lamb melts in your mouth, the kick of the sliced chillies and fresh ginger elevates this dish to another level.
Ingredients
- 3 lamb shanks
- 4 tbsp oil
- 1.5 ltr water
- 1/3 cup chickpea flour ideally roasted
- 1/2 cup ghee (clarified butter)
- 2 onions
Nihari Masala Whole Spices
- 2 tbsp black peppercorns
- 1/2 star anise
- 4 green cardamom
- 1 black cardamom
- 5 cloves
- 3 whole Kashmiri chillies
- 1 tsp whole cumin seeds
- 2 tbsp whole coriander seeds
- 2 whole mace
- 1 tbsp fennel seeds
- 3 cinnamon stick around 1 inch
Nihari Masala Ground Spices
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 tbsp Kashmiri chilli powder
- 1 tbsp ginger powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
Garnish
- 2 tbsp whole ginger finely julienned
- 2 tbsp green chillies finely sliced
- 3 tbsp fresh coriander finely chopped
- 1 lemon sliced
Instructions
Nihari Spice Mix
- What spices are we using:
- Dry roast all the whole spices and allow to cool.
- Once the whole spices have cooled, grind these into powder.
- Add the turmeric, Kashmiri chilli powder, ginger powder and garlic powder to the freshly ground spices and mix thoroughly.
Cooking Stage
- Heat oil and brown off the shanks. It may be better to do this one at a time.
- Add the 4 tbsp of spice mix and allow to sauté for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add all the shanks back to the pot and allow them to infuse with the spices for a few moments.
- Add salt to taste.
- Add hot water, bring this to boil then set on very low flame, cover and leave to simmer until the lamb shanks have cooked through. This will take approximately around 3 to 3.5 hours. This is the main cooking process and the duration will vary depending on the size of the shanks. Remember to occasionally give them a stir.
- Whilst the lamb shanks are cooking, prepare the last couple of items required: fry two sliced onions until golden brown in ghee. Once done, leave 1/4 to the side for garnish and we will add remaining into the Nihari pot including the ghee.
- Check that the shanks are cooked.
- Once the shanks are cooked, carefully remove them from the pot and leave aside, we need to make sure that the gravy/sauce mixture has the correct consistency.
- Make sure no lumps remain. We need to slowly add this to the nihari, stirring continuously to avoid lumps being formed, being mindful gravy/sauce has a good consistency and not too watery, allow this to simmer on a very low heat for 10 minutes.
- Next prepare to make the chickpea slurry; dry roast 1/3 cup of chickpea flour and once cooled add enough water to make into a slurry.
- Add a little water and mix to make sure no lumps remain.
- You now need to add this to our Nihari gravy, we need the gravy/sauce to have a good consistency and not be too watery.
- Allow this to simmer on a very low heat for 10 minutes. Add some of the chopped coriander.
- Add ¾ of the fried onions along with ghee that it was fried in and allow this to simmer for 2 – 3 minutes.
- Carefully return the lamb shanks to the pot and allow this to simmer for a further few minutes.
- Garnish your serving bowl with: fried onions, julienned ginger, finely sliced fresh green chillies, lemon wedges and chopped coriander
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
