James Whetlor’s Kid Shank and Quince Tagine for #GivingTuesday and Farm Africa

#GivingTuesday Farm Africa is a great foil to the commercial yuckiness of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. What could be a better start to advent than thinking of other people instead of ourselves?

#GivingTuesday started in the USA, aiming to create an international day of giving at the beginning of this festive season, uniting the public, businesses and charities to celebrate generosity and giving back. In 2014 more than 27,000 organisations got involved – this year should be even bigger! Give #GivingTuesday a social media shoutout so more people know, and promote, this great idea! Leading poultry suppliers Moy Park have kindly agreed to match all online donations to Farm Africa between 27th November and 1st December – so quick, let’s donate while we can! If you can donate anything at all for Farm Africa’s great projects, every penny is worth while – follow this link to their Giving Tuesday donations page and to find out more.

Farm Africa is an amazing charity which I’ve supported before with the Live Below the Line challenges I’ve done – and I just think they are a charity with the best ethos out there at the moment – empowering people, giving them dignity, giving them time and access to opportunity.

Anyway, lovely Farm Africa got in touch last week with recipes from three great British chefs, so I could choose one to host, just to celebrate #GivingTuesday! Wahoo! The recipes are being shared to raise awareness for Farm Africa as a charity, and specifically for their current project in Nairobi, Kenya – setting up urban vegetable gardens. As many kids in Nairobi are malnourished because of a very limited diet, these gardens will allow school communities to grow healthy food for children to tuck into at lunchtime, adding vital nutrients to their diets.

I decided to go for James Whetlor’s Kid Shank recipe in the end because it sounds tremendous. In addition, all ingredients from the recipe will be grown in the schools’ veggie gardens! I am going to be getting this on the hob imminently, but thought I’d better share it with you guys pre-GivingTuesday so you’ve got access to it too!

James Whetlor is a chef who used to work at River Cottage. When he moved to Devon with his wife, Sushila Moles, also a River Cottage chef at the time, they did not have goat rearing as a plan for the future! They acquired some goats for land clearing – their company Cabrito Goat Meat became a supplier to the likes of Sat Bains and St John and in 2014 was named best producer at the OFM awards.

Without further ado, here’s James’ recipe, which serves 4.

Ingredients for the meat:

4 kid shanks

1 tsp salt

2 skinned tomatoes, crushed

2 medium onions, peeled and diced

3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped

50gr butter, melted

Pinch chilli flakes

1 tsp cumin seeds – toasted and ground

1 tsp coriander seeds – toasted and ground

1 tsp ground ginger

1 small cinnamon stick

1 large bunch coriander, leaves chopped, stalks reserved

350ml stock or water – warmed

10 saffron threads, soaked in the stock for 20 minutes

 

Ingredients for the quince:

2 quinces, peeled and quartered

6 tbsp raisins

50gr honey

½ tsp ground cinnamon

1 tbsp butter

Method:

• In a bowl mix together the meat, salt, tomatoes, onions, melted butter and spices. Cover and refrigerate for a couple of hours or overnight.
• To cook, put the marinated meat in a large saucepan, and cook the mix over a moderate heat uncovered for 20 minutes stirring occasionally.
• Stir in the water or stock, saffron and half the coriander stalks; cover and simmer gently over a low heat for about 2 ½ – 3 hours or until the shank meat is meltingly tender. Top up a bit with water if the sauce looks dry.
• While the shanks are cooking, bring a small saucepan of water to the boil with the honey and raisins and poach the quince until just tender, drain.

• When cooked remove the shanks from the sauce and keep warm. Remove excess fat from the sauce and add the quince liquor to taste. Season with salt to taste, and return the meat to the sauce.
• Heat 1 tbsp butter over a moderate heat in a frying pan. Add quince, sugar and cinnamon.
•  Fry on both sides until golden and glazed all over. Add the raisins and toss gently together and pour over the meat.
• Serve in a warm serving dish scattered with the rest of the coriander.

Now, if that doesn’t sound great, I don’t know what does!

Try out this recipe, feel free to share with hashtags:

#GivingTuesday @FarmAfrica

and if you can donate to this amazing cause, do!

That donate link again:

https://www.farmafrica.org/donate/donation-form/33/make-a-givingtuesday-donation

Happy nearly-advent!! x