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
- 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.
- Preheat the oven to 160°C/gas mark 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.
- 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.)
- Remove the cooked meat from the oven and serve garnished with torn mint leaves and the cooking juices spooned on top.
