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Hello, for the Patara Lamb Shanks my question Is why you don't add the panang curry paste at the beggining in the coconut milk before cooking the lamb shanks in the oven? Why you add the paste only after 2 hours of cooking? Thank you!
Our answer
Nigella's Patara Lamb Shanks (from KITCHEN) are are slowly braised in a combination of coconut milk and water, until the meat is very tender. Once the lamb shanks have cooked, they are kept warm in the oven, covered by 1 litre of the cooking liquid, while the remaining cooking liquid is used to make the curry sauce.
The reason the panang curry paste is added after cooking is that the portion of cooking liquid used to keep the lamb shanks warm is discarded and if you added the paste before the lamb shanks went into the oven you would need a lot more curry paste and then have to discard half of the liquid with the curry paste in. Making the sauce afterwards means that you do not waste any extra curry paste or fish sauce and it is also easier to adjust the taste of the sauce by adding the flavourings at the end. As the curry pastes are also generally ready to use, they do not usually require a long cooking time to develop their flavour.
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