>>Recipe - Fiery lamb shanks and mash

Who doesn't love a piece of meat that is so tender it falls of the bone! In a world of food, that is possibly one of my favourite dishes, and it can't fail to please. What is also really great is that it's super easy to make, especially if you know that you'll be having guest over. Just pop it in the oven and forget about it for 3 hours. A lot of people might think that lamb shank is super expensive an therefor they don't cook with it as often, however, I made this recipe with only two pieces of shank for us two and the whole dish cost just about R100. I recently got myself a very useful cookbook: Gordon Ramsey's ultimate cookery course (based on the tv series - 100 recipes to stake your life on). It's brilliant, and all the recipes are super easy to cook and doesn't include a load if weird ingredients. I got his recipe from that book and cooked it for us last Sunday. It's a winner, I promise.

Ingredients

4 lamb shanks

Olive oil, for frying

2 carrots, peeled and sliced

1 onion, peeled and thickly sliced

2 bay leaves

1 x 750ml bottle red wine

500ml chicken stock

Small handful of mint leaves, to garnish 

For the marinade

1-2 green chillies, deseeded and sliced, to taste

1-2 red chillies, deseeded and sliced, to taste

2 tsp smoked paprika

2 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp cumin seeds

2 cinnamon sticks, snapped in half

3 garlic cloves, peeled, roughly chopped and crushed

Olive oil

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper 

Method

1. First prepare the marinade. Mix the chillies (use only one of each if you don't like hot dishes), smoked paprika, oregano, cumin seeds, cinnamon sticks, garlic, 1tablespoon of olive oil and seasoning together. Rub the mixture into the lamb so that it is well flavoured. You can cook the lamb straight away, but if you have time, cover and leave to marinate for at least 1 hour, or even overnight.
2. Preheat the oven to 160°C/gas mark 3.
3. Heat a large casserole dish on the hob and add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Brown the lamb in it for about 6 minutes until coloured on all sides, then add the chillies and cinnamon from the marinade.
4. Add the carrots, onion and bay leaves to the casserole and brown for a minute or two. Lift the lamb so that it is resting on top of the onions and carrots. Add the red wine to deglaze the pan, scraping up the bits from the bottom, then bring to the boil and cook for 7-8 minutes to reduce the liquid by half. Add the chicken stock; bring to the boil, then transfer, uncovered, to the preheated oven. Cook for 3 hours until the meat is really tender and the sauce reduced. (If the tops of the shanks look like they might be drying out, just baste and occasionally turn them.)
5. Remove the cooked meat from the oven and serve garnished with torn mint leaves and the cooking juices spooned on top.