On the heat. Hot

Ingredients

• 6 lamb shanks, or 2 kg knuckles
• 3 marrow bones
• 150 g ghee
• 3 onions, sliced and fried crisp
• 3 tbsp ginger–garlic paste
• 2 tbsp Kashmiri chilli · 1 tbsp coriander
• 1 tsp turmeric · 2 tsp fennel
• — NIHARI MASALA, TIED IN MUSLIN
• 1 tsp each: fennel seed, black peppercorn, coriander seed
• ½ tsp each: nutmeg, mace, star anise, black cardamom, long pepper
• — TO FINISH
• 4 tbsp flour in 200 ml water · ginger julienne · green chilli · lemon

Method

1. Brown the shanks all over in the ghee and set aside. Marrow bones in and browned too.
2. Ginger–garlic in, then the ground spices with a splash of water. Meat back in with 2.5 litres of water and the muslin bag.
3. Bring to a bare simmer, lid on, and leave it four hours. Traditionally this sat overnight on the dying embers of a bread oven, and it will forgive five hours.
4. Lift the meat out. Remove the muslin bag. Whisk the flour slurry into the liquid and simmer 15 minutes until it goes silky and coats a spoon.
5. Meat back in. Push the marrow out of the bones into the pot and stir it through.
6. Serve with a heap of ginger julienne, sliced green chilli, coriander and lemon on top, and naan. The garnish is not decorative — it is half the dish.

Cook's note. The flour is the point. Nihari is defined by that thickened, glossy gravy. Without it you have a shank stew, which is a fine thing but a different one.

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