Lamb Shank Tagine with Green Olive Tapenade

Ingredients

4 lamb shanks
1tbs Red Island extra virgin olive oil
1 brown onion, quartered
1 bulb garlic
1/2 cup dried chickpeas
10 Coles dried apricots
1/2 bunch rosemary
2tsp cumin seeds
2tsp Coles smoked paprika
½ a piece of preserved lemon, sliced
1.5L water
400g can Coles diced tomatoes

Green Olive Tapenade
1 cup green olives
½ green chilli, deseeded and diced
¼ red onion, finely diced
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup Coles pepitas toasted
1/4 bunch of parsley, roughly chopped
2tbs Red Island extra virgin olive oil
Coles salt and pepper to taste

Method

In a large tajine, brown off the lamb shanks, until they have good colour on all sides. Season the shanks with salt and then remove them from the pan.

Add the brown onion and garlic cloves to the pan. Again, brown the onion and garlic until it has some good colour. Next, add the cumin seeds and smoked paprika to the pan.

Toast these off for a couple of minutes before adding the rosemary, chickpeas, dried apricots, preserved lemon and lamb shanks to the pan.

Deglaze with the chicken stock and tinned tomatoes and season again with salt and pepper.

Bring the mixture up to the boil and then reduce to a simmer and let it tick away on low for 3hours. You'll know when it’s done because the lamb will fall off the bone.

Green Olive Tapenade
For the Green Olive Tapenade, combine all of the ingredients into a small blender and blitz until the tapenade juice comes together.

Once the shanks come out of the oven, spoon over a good amount of the tapenade and serve with some crusty bread.

Recipe by Andy Allen