I love lamb shank and have always prepared it as a treat/when
hosting/trying to impress (don’t judge meJ).
This week we experiment with cooking with wine as a way of enhancing the
flavour. It’s important to find a wine that compliments
your dish, is of reasonable quality, tastes delicious on its own and is of good
value. As a general rule, try not
to buy anything labelled as ‘cooking wine’ since it probably earned that title
by being unfit to drink. Starter chefs, do tell me how easy you find this one….
Ingredients:
- 4 lamb shanks
- large carrots, roughly chopped
- 1 onion, sliced
- 3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 sprigs rosemary
- 750 ml full-bodied red wine (1 bottle)
- 2 cups beef stock
- 1 tablespoon soft brown sugar
- 1 -2 teaspoon cornflour
- olive oil, for cooking
- salt & pepper
Method:
Preheat
oven to 180 Degrees Celsius. Season the lamb shanks with salt and pepper. In a
large frying pan brown the lamb shanks on all sides in the olive oil; remove
from pan and put into a large casserole dish to keep warm. In the same frying
pan put in the carrots, onions, garlic, bay leaves and rosemary and cook slowly
until nicely coloured. Pour in the red wine, beef stock, and brown sugar into
the frying pan and stir gently bringing it to a low boil.Pour
the wine mixture over the lamb shanks; top up with water if needed. Cover; put
in oven and cook for 2 1/2 – 3 hours until very tender. Remove the lamb shanks
and keep warm and skim the fat off the top of the red wine juices. Mix together
the cornflour with just a bit of cold water and whisk the cornflour mixture
into the red wine juices until desired consistency. Serve up on individual
plates and enjoy.
NB:
- Open, refrigerated wine is drinkable for up to a week and suitable for cooking for two weeks.
- You can also serve the dish with Mashed Potatoes (Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add potatoes and cook until tender but still firm, about 15 minutes; drain. In a small saucepan heat butter and milk over low heat until butter is melted. Using a potato masher or electric beater, slowly blend milk mixture into potatoes until smooth and creamy)
Until next time,
L now known as La Petit Chef (thanks Ma Femme..bzu)
Image Credit: realfood.tesco.com
