Spanish-style lamb shank casserole

It’s almost spring, and time to celebrate one of our best home-grown British ingredients, spring lamb. We are big lamb lovers in our household, from an impressive roast leg of lamb to Monday leftovers; it’s always welcome on our family dinner table.

Although I love the usual leg of lamb and lamb chops, it’s lamb shanks that have taken pride of place lately; we find that two large shanks feed a family of four with ease, and sometimes there are leftovers too. Lamb shanks used to be the poor man’s cut of meat, but they have made a big revival lately, which is all to the good.

Lambs shanks are also juicy and full of flavour – it’s almost as if the flavour has been concentrated in this small cut of meat! The meat falls off the bone after being slow cooked and as well as being a fabulous “small roasting” joint, the meat is perfect for pies as well as stews and casseroles.

The recipe I am sharing today is for a Spanish inspired casserole – two large lamb shanks are cooked in a spicy broth with chorizo sausage, tomatoes, onions, carrots and hot pimento. The meal is cooked in a slow-cooker (although you can cook it in a low oven) and is served with piles of mashed sweet potatoes. Great British Chefs also have some handy guidelines on how to cook lamb shanks.

Any leftovers can be frozen, although I think you’ll find that it will all be polished off in one sitting! One tip, lamb is a fatty meat, as are chorizo sausages, so you need to skim the fat off the casserole and maybe decant it into another dish before serving it.