Moroccan spiced lamb soup
Winter forces us to slow down. The shorter days and cold nights bring a desire for food that not only warms you physically but also warms your soul. This is indeed one of those recipes, shared with me by a girlfriend. In Western food culture, we think of cinnamon and nutmeg as spices used in sweet dishes - often paired with sugar on doughnuts, or with mixed fruit in Christmas pudding. But those in the Middle East and Africa know that there is so much more to these spices. They have a warming sensation that goes just as well with lamb as it does with apples. There are many commercial "Moroccan spice" blends available. Mine consists of chilli, allspice, pepper, thyme, cinnamon and nutmeg. It has a warm, woody, almost earthy fragrance. In this recipe I have dry-roasted the lamb shanks to bring out the sweetness in the meat, to caramelise the outside, and to reduce the fat. Of course, you could skip this step and just boil the shanks in the soup, removing the meat from the bone ...
