Jerk and Rioja lamb shanks with rice and peas

From Nicola Millbank's cookbook 'Milly's Real Food'

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Serves 4

I created this recipe when a friend came over for dinner. Asked what he liked to eat, he said Caribbean food and lamb…OK, what the heck do I do with that? From that experimental journey came this dish, one I now crave in the colder months, and which is loved by friends and always cooked on request for my father’s birthday.

Ingredients for the marinade:

• 100ml dark rum
• 100ml ginger beer
• zest and juice of 1 orange
• 1 tbsp jerk seasoning
• 1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
• 1 tsp allspice
• 1 large red chilli, cut in half
• a sprig of fresh thyme
• a few garlic cloves
• 4 lamb shanks

Ingredients for the sauce:

• olive oil
• 1 onion, quartered
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped into thick chunks
• 200ml red wine
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 lamb stock cube
• sea salt and freshly ground pepper

For the rice and peas:

• 1 x 400g tin coconut milk
• 1 tin measurement chicken stock
• 1 tin measurement white rice
• a sprig of thyme
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1 x 400g tin kidney beans, drained
• butter

Method:

Pop all of the marinade ingredients in a large bowl and stir well. Pierce the lamb shanks with a knife and rub all over with the marinade. Allow the lamb shanks to marinate in the fridge overnight.

The following day, preheat the oven to 150°C/130°C fan/Gas mark 2.

Heat, a glug of olive oil in a heavy-based pan placed over a high heat. (Ensure the pan isn’t too big; you want the lamb shanks to fit snugly in the pan.)

Remove the lamb shanks from the marinade and fry until browned on all sides. Remove from the pan and set aside. Add the onion, garlic and carrots and stir well. Pour in the wine and deglaze the pan, getting all the delicious, sticky cooking juices up from the bottom of the pan.

Pop the lamb shanks back in the pan and add the balsamic vinegar and 100ml water then crumble in the stock cube.

Strain the marinade and add three-quarters of it to the pan. Bring to the boil, then cover and cook on the middle of the oven for 3 hours, turning the shanks half way through.

Once the shanks are cooked, carefully remove them from the pan and cover with foil to keep warm.

Place a pan over a medium–high heat and add the coconut milk. Fill the empty tin with rice and add to the pan and then repeat with the chicken stock. This is the perfect ratio of rice for 4 hungry people.

Bring to the boil, add the thyme and allspice, cover and leave on a low simmer for 15 minutes. If at any time it needs more water, just add a splash. Just before the end of cooking, add the kidney beans and a knob of butter then put the lid back on.

Meanwhile, place the lamb cooking pan over a medium– high heat and reduce the sauce for 10–15 minutes. You're looking for a gravy consistency that's lovely and glossy. Check the seasoning.

Serve the lamb shanks covered with the sauce poured over and the rice and peas on the side.