I've got the most incredible recipe for you to try this weekend.
This dish is absolutely inspired by our Scottish brothers and sisters. Using the incredible spices
of haggis we're gonna do lamb shanks that are so tender they're just gonna fall off the bone. We're
gonna have a kick of marmalade, whiskey, and a deep rich veggie sauce on a creamy, cheesy, pearl
barley risotto, you're gonna love it. So it all begins here with these six beautiful lamb shanks.
What I like to do is go to my butcher. These have been French-trimmed at the top
which exposed the bone they look absolutely beautiful. I'm gonna kiss them with just a
little olive oil and I'll season these with salt and pepper. And then what we wanna do is get that
into a frying pan which is on a medium heat. So we want to brown off the lamb shanks to get beautiful
colour to create more flavour. Now at the same time add a little olive oil to a pan. I'm just
going to finely chop four slices of smoked bacon then go in with some bay leaves for flavour.
The smell is already incredible. So next ingredient, onions. I'm going to use one white
and one red. I want to cut them quite big. In with the onions. A couple of carrots, nice big chunks
of carrot. Then we're going in with our friend Mr swede, ultimately what I'm after is one-inch
chunks. Last but not least the humble celery stick, and in we go. What we're doing now is
intensifying and caramelising like natural sugars in the veggies. 15 minutes dedicated for colour,
colour, colour. So, let's talk spices. Haggis, such an incredible dish. The spicing is brilliant.
So go into a mortar with those classic haggis spices. A tablespoon of black pepper,
10 allspice berries, 5 cloves, and grate in half a nutmeg. Bash them together until fine
and sieve them over the veg. This is all getting very exciting. I can even be a little bit cheeky
and steal a little bit of the lamb fat, full of flavour. You can see caramelising in full effect.
I'm going to add one tablespoon of thick-cut marmalade, it's going to make everything shine
and it's going to start to caramelise even more. I want to add a thickening agent now,
so one generous heaped tablespoon of flour. And then one of my favorite ingredients, four shots
of really nice Scotch whiskey. Now if you want what you can do is flame it. Of course when you're
flaming be careful, because you want the alcohol to cook away fully. As soon as that's happened
add this amazing golden lamb shank, look at that colour! Any sticky bits from the pan can go in.
Pour in a litre of beef stock then scrunch up a sheet of greaseproof paper and cover the pot.
So I love to put the greaseproof on instead of a lid because what happens is it lets it
slowly evaporate concentrating that lovely gravy and it's going to be richer and tastier for it.
So I'm going to cook that now for three hours at 170 degrees Celsius and the oven's going to do
all the hard work and make it so tender you won't believe. Now I want to show you how to make the
most delicious sweet leek pearl barley risotto. We have these lovely big leeks, concentrate
on the white part. Cut it in half lengthwise like that, and I just want to finely slice the leeks.
Add a knob of butter to a new pan, a couple of sprigs of thyme,
then go in with your leeks. Add a splash of water and cook over a medium heat for 15 minutes.
The leaks have just been ticking away have a look at that, the softness and sweetness that's
come out of these leaks is unbelievable. We can add 450 grams of pearl barley. Now look, these
are fantastic little grains, and it has this incredible ability just like risotto grains to
suck up flavour from not only the leeks that are sweet and delicious but good stock. Go in with a
litre and a half of chicken stock, cover and cook for around 40 minutes until the barley is tender.
The pearl barley is smelling delicious and if we have a little taste,
oh, that's delicious. What I want to do is just add about 500 mils
of milk to sort of make it pearly white and there's one last ingredient, cheddar cheese.
Not only for flavour, but also for seasoning. In we go, and just stir it in, turn the heat off,
let it just sit. Beautifully kind of getting even more silky and gorgeous. Let's think about
serving up. Have a little look at that, come on! Chunks of veg. Let's grab one of those shanks.
Just amazing. And then let's go over to that incredible
pearl barley. Look at that - starchy, comforting gorgeousness.
I'll take just a few thyme tips sprinkle it on the top. Come on let's get some of that! See how
silky it is. I'll go in with the veg first, look at those chunks. And what i love is the way that
the dark thick gravy marbles through that silky barley risotto. Wowzers, let's get amongst it.
And we know we've done good work on the lamb when you can just shake,
shake shake the meat off the bone, come on look at that yes! Right enough yapping.
Deep flavour, tender, sweet meat. I just got a little hit of marmalade just a little chunk of
that orange peel works so well with the swede, the whiskey, the dark gravy, oh! Mm. Go out
this weekend get yourself some lamb shanks and have a proper little cook-up, you will love it.