SHANKS FOR DINNER.

Lamb shank curry with golden turmeric rice – mmmm, shanks for that.

Terry wanted lamb shank stew, and I wanted curry. And basically, that is what cooking is all about – coming up with an outcome that makes everyone happy.

This isn’t an austerely dry curry, it’s a wet one; nice and stewy and winter-warmy with a touch of sweetness from cinnamon, loads of onions, ginger and garlic, and an undercurrent of cardamom and cloves. It’s a bit of a mongrel of a recipe, but like all good mongrels, it’s a faithful friend.

If you have time, marinate the shanks in yoghurt and garam masala for a few hours; it gives them a bit more spice, and the yoghurt forms an interesting crust when you brown the shanks, only to soften in the long, slow cooking.

This pic is early in the cooking, just to show you the crusty shanks.

The base of onions, garlic and ginger gives the sauce its foundation flavours and a good texture at the finish line.

And here’s where you meet my curry slurry.

I was wondering how best to introduce all the spices – usually, it’s a matter of frying them in oil to bloom them a bit – but I often feel a bit different about ground spices, so I stirred them into liquid to create a paste or slurry and added them all at once. Neat.

Much about this recipe - like the traffic lights in Naples, say - is a suggestion. A framework. Your shanks may be big and fatty, or small and overly trimmed by a manic butcher. Use enough liquid to almost cover them and you’ll be fine either way. You may not be able to find the star anise. No matter.

All will be forgotten when you are in the kitchen and lift the lid on your simmering lamb shank curry, and ladle it out onto waiting plates, wreathed in spicy come-hither aromas and accompanied by a pile of golden rice flecked with tiny mustard seeds.

To potato or not to potato? I threw some in to see how necessary they were, and let’s face it, they all got eaten, but they may not have been missed had they not been there. We’ll never know. Here it is with potato:

And without potato:

LAMB SHANK CURRY WITH GOLDEN TURMERIC RICE

Make up your own mind about potatoes, and add one or two, diced - they will cook in the same time. Or add thickly sliced zucchini for the last 15 minutes of cooking, or a pile of spinach in the last two minutes of cooking, until wilted. Serves 4.

• 4 medium-sized lamb shanks, trimmed and washed

• 100 g yoghurt (or 5 tbsp)

• 2 tsp garam masala

• 3 tbsp vegetable or olive oil

• 2 to 3 onions, finely sliced

• 2 tbsp grated fresh ginger

• 3 garlic cloves, crushed or finely grated

• 2 cinnamon sticks

• 4 cardamom pods

• 2 star anise

• 4 cloves

• 400 g canned tomatoes, chopped

• half bunch fresh coriander

CURRY SLURRY:

• 2 tbsp tomato paste

• 1 tsp ground turmeric

• Half tsp freshly ground pepper

• half tsp chilli powder or dried chilli flakes

• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

• 2 tsp ground cumin

• 1 tbsp ground coriander

• 1 tsp salt

Stab a few slits in the meaty part of the shanks with the tip of a knife.

Mix the yoghurt and garam masala and massage into the lamb shanks.

Leave for two hours or overnight.

Heat half the oil in a heavy pan and wipe any excess yoghurt from the shanks.

Brown the shanks in the oil for around 5 minutes, turning occasionally, then remove to a bowl and set aside.

Heat remaining oil in the pan, add the onions, and fry for 6 to 8 minutes until lightly tanned.

Add the ginger, garlic, cinnamon sticks, cardamom pods, star anise and cloves, and cook for two minutes, stirring.

In a small bowl, make the curry slurry - combine the tomato paste, turmeric, pepper, chilli, cinnamon, cumin, coriander and salt with half a cup of water or stock to make a paste.

Add the curry slurry to the pan and gently cook for 3 minutes, stirring.

Add the canned tomatoes, stirring.

Return the shanks to the pan, add 500ml hot water or stock to just cover, and bring to the boil.

Reduce heat, partly cover and simmer for 2 hours or until the meat is tender and comes away from the bone.

Remove the lid for the last 10 minutes of simmering, skimming off any excess oil on the surface.

Taste the sauce, adjust seasoning and serve shanks and sauce in warmed pasta bowls.

Scatter with roughly chopped coriander and serve with turmeric rice.

Tips:

Serve with a bowl of natural yoghurt – maybe add some finely diced cucumber, chopped mint, a touch of ground cumin and salt; bam, you have raita.

If your shanks are fatty, you might like to cool the finished curry and refrigerate overnight to allow the fat to rise to the surface and be removed.

Aim for a lot of sauce; it’s so good with the rice. If you have too much, drain it into a small pan and reduce by boiling over high heat for 5 minutes, stirring, then return the reduced amount to the pan.

I was going to finely slice some shallots and frizzle them in hot oil until crisp, to add to the end as a garnish. Forgot.

Garam masala is a rich, warm masala (ground spice mix) of cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, cumin, coriander, nutmeg, bayleaf and black pepper.

From the Health & Safety Department - This curry contains whole spices; some of which you will see on your plate, such as cinnamon sticks, and others that you may inadvertently bite, such as cardamom pods. It won’t kill you. You’re welcome.

GOLDEN TURMERIC RICE

Serves 4

• 300g basmati rice

• 1 tbsp ghee or vegetable oil

• 1 tsp brown mustard seeds

• 1 cinnamon sticks

• half tsp turmeric powder

• half tsp sea salt

• 1 lemon, cut into wedges

Wash the rice really well in cold water and drain..

Heat the ghee or oil in a heavy lidded pan, add the mustard seeds, cinnamon stick, turmeric and pepper, stirring for 1 minute until the mustard seeds pop.

Add the drained rice and toss until well-coated.

Add 550 ml boiling water and sea salt, and bring to the boil, stirring.

Reduce the heat to very low and cover tightly.

Cook undisturbed for 16 minutes, then rest for 5 minutes off the heat.

Fluff up the rice with a fork and serve with lemon wedges for squeezing.

Tips:

Serve with a handful of toasted cashew nuts. All the mustard seeds will rise to the top of the cooked rice - just fluff it up and they’ll be redistributed throughout.

NEED TO KNOW: A NATIVE AUSTRALIAN CURRY.

And then I went out for lunch and had another curry, a very different one, cooked by Mindy Woods at a Sea Gathering presented by the ASC (Aquaculture Stewardship Council) in partnership with the Sea Museum (Australian National Maritime Museum) and Sydney Restaurant Group, and it made me stop and smile.

Mindy made the most beautiful ‘native green curry’ as a home for Humpty Doo Saltwater Barramundi from the Northern Territory. She completely Australianised the idea of curry, using native herbs and spices for the curry paste (I’m guessing pepperberry and lemon myrtle among them), and velvety macadamia cream instead of coconut milk for the sauce, and crunchy, juicy karkalla and crisp-fried saltbush for the greens - and bloody hell, it was good.

Her reasoning, as a proud Bundjalung woman, chef, restaurateur and educator, is simple. “We need to lean in on that ancient knowledge from our elders, the solutions that have always been there, the ingredients that can teach us so much about the future of our food systems.”

You can download a copy of Mindy’s recipes for ASC here, and details of her own cookbook, Karkalla at Home, are here. Another pic from the lunch is below, of Yumbah Aquaculture Greenlip Abalone, flash-fried with macadamia miso butter and crisp enoki.

Thank you, Mindy. I love the idea that we can Australianise the dishes we love to cook, letting them connect us closer to the land and the sea.

Shanks for dropping by! And shanks for your comments and suggestions. Special shanks to Terry for the curry leaves, a surprise last-minute addition.

I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands and waters upon which I work, live, cook and play; the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. Thank you for sharing your culture, traditions, knowledge, spirit, art, music, humour and food traditions, allowing us all to experience a sense of belonging in this ancient land.