Serves 4 | 5 mins prep only + 3-4 hours SLOW cook.
Divine cooked day before but not necessary.
I am baking this dish as I type but wanted to share the recipe straight away so you can pick up some shanks tomorrow and cook it across the (wet, cold Sydney) weekend. The aroma's are enough to bring a smile to your lips. We will be eating the dish tomorrow night - 8 adults and 8 kids to celebrate end of term. The fire will be blazing, red wine on hand, a bowl of food + fork and hopefully we will have out old fashioned board games, relaxing together. We won't explore the flip side!
I also made a similar dish last weekend so I know how good it is and how you can make up your own recipe based on what's in your veggie draw & pantry. The trick is to slow cook it the day or night before. That way the flavours develop, and if it is a concern to you can 'scoop' the set saturated fat off the top, carefully remove the shanks and reduce the sauce to further enrich the flavour.
TO MAKE
For tonights version,
brown off the shanks in cast iron, ovenable pan. Remove. (I did mine in a frypan in batches - all 16 of them, then layed them up in a large baking tray but this recipe is for 4-6).
Saute 1 roughly chopped onion. Turn off stove.
Add a sliced carrot & celery stick . If you have a small
eggplant, rough chop into 1-2 cm squares,
add to pan. Add back lamb shanks. Pour over
half a bottle of passata or canned tomatoes (chopped ones are good), Pour in
1/3 of a bottle of red wine, top up/cover with
water or stock if on hand (but don't worry there is plenty of flavour without it). Add some
fresh herbs (DIY bouquet garni of rosemary, thyme, marjoram or oregano, parsley - what ever you have growing). Good grind of
pepper and generous scrunch of
salt flakes. I also added some dried
porcini and I would have added a head of garlic if I had some. You can toss in a hand ful of Puy or brown lentils and you could sub in red capsicum for eggplant or leave both out.
Cover. Cook on 150C for 3-4 hours. Once cooked, carefully remove the shanks as the meat will fall off the bone. Pop the pot on the stove to reduce the sauce to concentrate the flavours further. You also don't need to do this step as it is seriously good as is. Serve with hot buttered vegetables (cauliflower or butternut pumpkin or a big bowl of peas & or beans) + either mashed potato or quinoa or a pappadelle.
