- 10 lamb shanks
- 4 tablespoons olive oil (not extra virgin)
- 2 lb onions
- 2 cloves garlic
- Leaves from 2 sprigs fresh rosemary to yield about 2 tablespoons needles, or 3-4 stalks thyme
- 1¾ cups/15oz can plain pumpkin purée
- 2 2/3 cups dried figs
- 1 teaspoon ground allspice
- 2 cinnamon sticks, crumbled
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1 750ml bottle red wine
- 2 cups water
- Heat the oil in a very large pan that will eventually accommodate the entire stew, and brown the lamb shanks in batches. Transfer the browned shanks to a bowl.
- Using a food processor (or by hand), chop the peeled onions and garlic, rosemary needles (or thyme leaves) finely. Fry them in the oily pan until the onion is soft but not colored.
- Add the pumpkin purée, dried figs, ground allspice, crumbled cinnamon sticks, honey, wine and water. Stir well and bring to the boil. Put the shanks back into the saucepan, turn down the heat and simmer for 1½ hours, partially covered.
- It is best to cook up until this point before leaving the stew overnight, preferably near an open window or at least somewhere cold, as once it has cooled, a layer of fat will have formed on the surface of the stew, and you can remove this before reheating. I find the best way to do this is by putting on clean rubber gloves – or better still, those disposable latex ones that make you feel you’re in “CSI” – and then use your hands, but you can also employ paper towels and a skimmer or fish slice.
- Reheat the lamb shanks gently, and check seasoning before serving.
- You could, if you wanted – and this is easiest if you own a rice cooker – make some golden rice, which is to say, plain rice tinted gold with turmeric. You could also make up a huge vat of polenta, just as suitably sunny and golden, though considerably harder work, unless you go for the instant kind, in which case use chicken stock, even out of a can, in place of the water that the package instructions say.