Lamb Shank and Barley soup. Or - Hug in a bowl.

This afternoon it was cold. windy and a little bit miserable.

I decided to dabble in the fine art of soup making.
I'm an avid fan of soup. It's always warm, always tasty and never fails to fill me up and make me feel warm and cosy. It's the perfect meal when you are lazy, it's delicious with a giant piece of crusty bread, or if you are in a rush it's easy to zap in the microwave and nom. It makes me happy.

Today i spent the afternoon making Lamb Shank and Barley Soup.

Here's what i did.

It takes about twenty minutes of preparation time and two hours of cooking, so some patience is required.

Purchase le following -

• 2 tbs olive oil
• 6 trimmed lamb shanks (I'm a little poor at the moment, so i only used 4)
• 3 potato's, roughly chopped and cooked
  
• 2 large chopped onions
• 4 cloves crushed garlic
• 2 diced carrots
• 2 sticks diced celery
• 2 litres beef stock
• 1 litre water
• 3/4 cup pearl barley
• 2 tbs chopped fresh rosemary
• 1 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary

Again, i had everything chopped up and placed in neat little bowls in front of me.




Heat the olive oil in a pan, make sure it's nice and hot and then place in the lamb. Be careful because they hiss and spit like there is no tomorrow. You only need to turn the shanks once.



Put the lamb aside in a bowl to rest.





Add the potato, garlic, onion, celery and carrot to the hot pan and cook until they are slightly brown.



At this point you may need to swap over to the biggest pan you can find. I used the one that i make jams in because it's bigger than my head.


See.

When your veggies are brown, put the shanks back in the pan and the stock, water, barley and two teaspoons of the rosemary.





Hoorah! I got to use my Mezzaluna again to chop the rosemary! Wheeee!

Bring your concoction to the boil and then reduce the temperature and simmer, covered for two hours. I suggest curling up with a good book while the delicious lamb smells wafts through your house. I started making my Chocolate Mint Brownies. Heeeeh.



After two hours, pull out the shanks and set them aside to cool slightly. (I cheated and banged them in the fridge) When they are cool enough, pull off the meat from the bone and shred slightly.



When you have finished removing the meat, return it to the soup and discard the bones. Add the rest of the Rosemary and season with salt and pepper to taste.



It's a massive amount of soup so when it is cool, you can separate it into containers and freeze. It will last for about three months frozen.





Tonight, Spomey and I ate ours with cheesy herb bread that i grilled slightly.

It was amazing.



Enjoy.