Feast Cookalong: Iranian lamb

I love our feature on the Slow Food at the Edge of the World program – the stories that these women have to tell are both heartbreaking and heartwarming, and I think it’s so important that their recipes and cultures are put to paper before they are lost.

One of my treasured possessions is my mother’s cookbook – a mishmash of recipes torn from magazines, alongside those in her own indecipherable handwriting, all stuck into a simple red-spined exercise book. My mum wasn’t a great cook – she was adventurous (for the ’70s), but I also have lasting memories (and not in a good way) of salmon fishcakes and lamb’s fry on the weekend. In this book is the chocolate cake she’d make for us and the crème de menthe jellies that I used to think were the height of sophistication – precious memories that, while not preserving a culture, are important to my little family.

This week, I cooked the Iranian lamb shanks on page 77 (October issue). Once I had the dried limes and fenugreek leaves, the rest was easy. Even then, I cheated a little and used a tin of kidney beans that I had in the cupboard – I added these at the same time as the spinach and herbs. The results were delicious – lamb that fell off the bone and plenty of sauce to pour over the rice (which I cooked with a little turmeric to add colour). Mr Ed is a big fan of lamb shanks and took great pleasure in gnawing them to the bone and then sucking out the tender marrow. If you’re a fan of marrow (and especially if you’re not), look out for it in Ingredient 101 in our next issue. I’m preparing to be converted!

Do you have a precious family cookbook? What dish from it is important to you?

Happy cooking!

Editor, Feast