The weather here in London is turning towards autumn after a summer that we hardly noticed. It’s time for some easy to cook comfort food. One of our family favourites is slow cooked lamb with prunes and pearl barley. It’s a classic one pot meal – well it’s two unless your slow cooker has a sauté function. Put it on in the morning and it’s perfect for dinner plus leftovers.

I have an amazing slow cooker that will brown and also make the sauce. If yours doesn’t have that function then make the sauce separately in a deep fry pan and add to the lamb in the slow cooker.

I use lamb shanks then strip the meat off them. It will also work well with a lamb shoulder or lamb neck. The recipe is for 6 lamb shanks, a generous two kilos with the weight of the bone or approximately 1 kilos if just using stewing lamb chunks. Ginger, saffron and the sweetness of the prunes gives this dish a Middle Eastern vibe. Adding the pearl barley a couple of hours before the end allows the barley to soak up all the juices. The recipe feeds 8 people with leftovers.

Recipe

Ingredients

6 lamb shanks

300 grams prunes

4 large shallots or an onion, chopped very fine

2 carrots, chopped very fine

45 mls (3 tablespoons olive oil)

Pat of butter

250 mls dry white wine

30 grams minced ginger (I use the jarred stuff for ease)

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons cumin

2 teaspoons ground coriander

1/4 teaspoon saffron threads

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 litre (4 cups) lamb stock or chicken stock

250 grams of pearl barley or long grain rice.

Preparation

1. Put the saffron in a small amount of hot water. Sauté the onions, carrots and ginger in the olive oil with butter, until well softened. Add the white wine, cook at high temperature until all the alcohol in the wine has evaporated. Add the spices including the saffron and its liquid. Add the stock and bring to a simmer.
2. Pit the prunes and rough chop into halves. Put the lamb and the prunes in the slow cooker. If lamb shanks, stand them upright in the slow cooker with the bone ends up. Pour the sauce over the lamb. Cook on a low setting for six hours. Add the pearl barley or the rice about two hours before the cooking time is up. The barley will absorb most of the cooking liquid. Remove the lamb, bone it and return it to the slow cooker.
3. Allow the stew to cool for 20 to 30 minutes. You could add some mashed potatoes or Yorkshire puddings but I usually serve with a green salad or cooked green beans and a nice côte du Rhone.

Thanks for reading the blog, sharing, cooking the recipes and your comments.