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 litre water
- ⅓ cup chickpea flour, ideally roasted
- ½ cup ghee (clarified butter)
- 2 onions
Nihari Masala Whole Spices
- 2 tbsp black peppercorn
- ½ 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 tumeric
- 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.We are ready to serve!
- Garnish your serving bowl with: fried onions, julienned ginger, finely sliced fresh green chillies, lemon wedges and chopped coriander
Tasted fantastic and my guests loved it! Easy to follow recipes… Thank you Haloodiefoodie for another successful dish.