DAVID’S LAMB SHANKS
Saturday night’s dinner was lamb shanks – our butcher cut up 6 shanks into manageable sizes. I added 3 potatoes and left out the celery.
8 Lamb Shanks
2 Onions
2 Carrots (I used 4)
60 ml Oil
2 Celery Sticks (substituted 3 potatoes)
10 ml Rosemary
1 Cinnamon Stick (I used 1 tsp cinnamon)
750 ml Beef Stock (I used 3 Knorr stock containers diluted in 500ml water)
3 Cloves Garlic Crushed
2 Oranges Grated Rind
500 ml Red Wine
60 ml Brown Sugar
125 ml Balsamic Vinegar
200 ml Tomato Paste
Brown the lamb shanks in oil and place in a casserole dish.
Sauté the onion, carrots, celery, garlic, rosemary and cinnamon in some oil.
Add the grated orange rind, wine, stock, sugar, tomato paste and vinegar and pour over the shanks.
Cover and cook at 160°C for 3 hours.
Open and cook for a further 30 minutes – meat should be almost falling off the bone.
Remove shanks and boil the sauce to reduce to half the original amount.
I added 2tsp cumin to the onion mixture and at the 30 minute mark I removed half a cup of the liquid, mixed with gravy powder and mixed back into the pot. I added oreganum too. I reduced the wine quite a bit too before adding to the shanks. If you make a thicker gravy you can skip the last step in the recipe. I don’t like an overpowering wine taste so find it best to reduce before adding to food.
PHOTO – David Clingham