Braised Lamb Shanks

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Beautiful flavours and aromas

Enhancing & not masking

Most ingredients are good enough to eat on their own and need not be masked with plenty of flavours. Lamb Shanks definitely fall in this category. The meet is very good, turns out super moist and tender. The bone of the shank intensifies the meat flavour and the richness of the braising sauce. I don’t season these shanks with anything more than salt & black pepper. Let the star of this dish shine in its own right.

This braised dish tastes delicious and is good served on its own, the added vegetables and herbs here make excellent accompaniments. They enrich the braising sauce and allow for making a cream of vegetable soup (recipe below) the next day. Moreover, any leftover meat can be recreated into a pulled lamb sandwich drenched with braising sauce. These sandwiches are moist and packed full with flavour.

Tip: Braising  is a cooking technique where meat is browned in some sort of fat, then slowly stewed (simmered | slowly cooked) in a covered casserole dish or pot. The slow stewing on low temperature creates a delicate, moist and super tender meat. (watch the video below)

You can go for the regular butcher’s cut shank (meat bound to top of the bone), or the french cut shanks where the tip of the bone is showing. Whichever way you go tastes just the same!

 

Ingredients

Serves: 4
  • 12 lamb shanks, rinsed with cold water and pat dried
  • 1/4 cup DS Organic Olive Oil
  • 2 large leeks, finely sliced
  • 4 celery sticks, finely sliced
  • 4-6 carrots, roughly cut
  • 1 packet cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 2 heads garlic cloves, segmented keeping skin intact
  • 1.5 litre beef stock
  • 1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 4 sprigs, fresh thyme
  • 3 sprigs, fresh rosemary

Preheat oven to 300 F-160C.

Place your casserole dish on the stove, add the olive oil and slightly heat (do not over heat olive oil, or let it smoke), you just want to warm it up for the meat. Meanwhile, season the shanks with salt and black pepper. Place the seasoned shanks in the oil and brown on all sides. Careful, as the oil will spit.

Once browned, remove from the casserole dish and set aside. Place the chopped leeks, celery, garlic cloves and carrots in casserole containing the browning oil and gently soften. Add the bay leaves and put back the shanks in the casserole dish on top of the vegetables. Add cherry tomatoes, herbs, stock and vinegar. Bring the mixture to a boil.

Cover the casserole dish with its oven proof lid or foil paper and place at the bottom rack in the preheated oven and cook for 3-4 hours.

Remove from the oven. Let it rest, covered, for 5 minutes. Remove the lid and serve warm. Just dip the baguette in the braising liquid and taste…. Perfection!

For Cream of Braised Vegetables Soup

Ingredients

The leftover vegetables from braising
Braising Liquid
600 ml beef stock
3 tbsp cooking cream

Discard the herb strings, push out the soft garlic flesh from the skin and discard the skin. Place the vegetables and garlic flesh along with braising liquid and beef stock in a pot and gently bring to a boil. Simmer covered over low heat for 10 minutes.

With an immersion blender, blend the soup till soft. Add cream and stir to combine. If you have leftover meat, then you can pull off the bone, heat and add to the soup.

Serve hot, alongside baguette for dipping.

 

 

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