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Posts Tagged ‘Lamb Shanks’

Winter Lamb

Posted in Food, Lamb, tagged , , , , , on 5 January 2025| 2 Comments »

There truly is only one season for this dish. It takes forever, and is best made the day before, but the ultimate comfort food when it’s time to eat.

Wine Suggestion: A good southern Rhône blend will have the muscle and richness to match this without being to heavy or tannic. A firm favourite, though we’ve not opened one for a while (I blame an inquisitive palate) is Domaine du Grapillon d’Or’s Gigondas which is mostly Grenache with a touch of Syrah at it’s core. Brambly red fruits, with both a juiciness and powerful structure in abundance, while remaining elegant and poised.

Winter Lamb – serves 6

  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 6 lamb shanks, trimmed of excess fat
  • 2 medium onions, thinly sliced
  • 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
  • 50g plain flour
  • 600ml cold chicken stock
  • 3 tbsp sun-dried tomato paste
  • 150ml red wine or Port
  • 3 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp chopped thyme leaves
  • 1½ tbsp balsamic vinegar

Ideally start the day before and heat the oven to 160C/140C fan.

Heat half the oil in a large, deep, ovenproof saucepan or casserole. Brown the shanks all over, you will probably need to do this in batches. Remove and set aside.

Add the rest of the oil to the pan, then add the onions and garlic, and cook over a high heat for about 5 minutes or until starting to soften. Put the flour into a jug and slowly whisk in the cold stock until smooth. Add to the onion pan with the tomato paste and red wine or Port and bring to the boil.

Return the lamb to the pan, add the soy sauce and thyme, and season with salt and pepper. Stir well, then cover with a lid, and transfer to the oven for 3-4 hours or until the meat is tender and starting to fall off the bone. Stir in the vinegar.

Remove the shanks from the sauce, wrap in foil, and set aside to cool. Pour the sauce into a shallow ovenproof dish, cool, and cover with foil. When the sauce and shanks are completely cool, transfer to the fridge and leave overnight if you can.

To serve, heat the oven to 180C/160C fan. Remove any fat from the surface of the sauce with a spoon and discard. Remove the meat from the bone and leave in chunky pieces. Add the meat to the sauce and cover with foil.

Reheat in the oven for 45-50 minutes or until piping hot.

(Original recipe from Mary Berry Cooks Up a Feast with Lucy Young, DK: Penguin Random House, 2019.)

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Lamb Shank Balti

Posted in Food, Indian, Lamb, tagged , , , , , , , on 8 April 2020| 2 Comments »

Lamb Shank Balti

The only thing missing from this dish was a crowd to share it with, but we’ll keep it in our back pockets for when that can happen again. If, like us, you make for a small dinner party, you can pull the leftover meat off the bone and stir it into the sauce. This allows you to have some tomorrow, or stash some in the freezer for another day. Serve with rice and your choice of naan bread, Indian chutneys or pickles and yoghurt or raita.

You need to marinate the meat the night before – literally 3 minutes work! And if you marinate in an oven tray, which we recommend, then take out of the fridge an hour before cooking to come up to room temperature.

Wine Suggestion: A rich and warm, spiced dish like this needs a similar kind of wine. A red from a warmer climate is our choice and tonight it was the Finca Bacara Pirapu; a Monastrell-Syrah blend from Jumilla in Spain. Juicy, and with a warm, earthy spice of it’s own. The high levels of juicy, soft tannins help with the rich meat. We’ll get this wine again for when we are entertaining properly and cooking this dish as it was a delight.

Lamb shank balti – serves 5 to 6

  • 5-6 lamb shanks
  • 3-4 onions, halved and sliced
  • 100g fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 6 garlic cloves
  • 2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
  • 6 tbsp balti paste (we used Patak’s)
  • 2 tbsp garam masala
  • 4tsp brown sugar
  • a handful of pomegranate seeds
  • a handful of coriander leaves

FOR THE MARINADE:

  • 2 tbsp balti paste
  • 2 tbsp sunflower or vegetable oil
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 2 tsp ground cumin
  • 2 tsp brown mustard seeds
  • 2 tsp ground turmeric
  • 2 tsp kalonji seeds (nigella or onion seeds)
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon

The day before, mix the ingredients together for the marinade. Put the lamb shanks in a roasting tin and rub the marinade all over them (you might want to wear disposable gloves if you want to avoid yellow hands). Cover and chill overnight.

Heat the oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 7.

Roast the lamb for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to 160C/140C fan/gas 3.

Cover the tray with a double layer of tin foil and scrunch tightly around the edges to make sure it’s sealed. Return to the oven and cook for another 3 hours.

Remove the foil and stir the onions into the juices in the tin, then return to the oven and cook, uncovered, for another 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, put the ginger, garlic, 1 tin of the tomatoes, balti paste, garam masala and sugar into a food processor of blender. Whizz until smoothish. Stir this paste into the onions and also add the second tin of tomatoes and put back in the oven for a final 30 minutes.

Serve with the pomegranate seeds and coriander scattered over.

(Original recipe from BBC Good Food)

 

 

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Neeps n Shanks

Posted in Food, Lamb, tagged , , , , on 1 March 2012| 5 Comments »

Real comfort food with rich and deep flavours. We took the meat of the shanks when they were cooked cause our bowls weren’t big enough!

A dish of lamb shanks with preserved lemon and swede – to serve 4

  • 2 large onions, sliced into thick segments
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 4 lamb shanks
  • 2 tbsp plain flour
  • 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
  • 750ml light stock or water
  • 200ml white vermouth or white wine
  • a large turnip (or a swede if that’s what you call them), cut into chunks
  • juice of half a lemon
  • 2 preserved lemons
  • 4 bushy sprigs of parsley

Preheat the oven to 160°C/Gas 3.

Warm the oil in a deep casserole and season the lamb. Lighlty brown the lamb all over in the oil, then lift it out.

Add the onions to the pan. Let them soften and colour a little , then stir in the flour.

Add the garlic, stock and wine and bring to the boil. As soon as it boils, add the turnip and the lemon juice along with the spent lemon shell, plus some seasoning.

Put the lamb shanks back in, cover with greaseproof paper and a lid and put in the oven for 2 hours, turning the shanks now and then.

After an 1½ hours cut the preserved lemons in half and scrape out the pith. Chop the skin fairly finely. Add to the casserole and continue to cook for the remaining 30 minutes or until the turnip is tender and you can easily pull the lamb from the bones.

Roughly chop the parsley leaves and add to the casserole. Let it settle for a minute or two before serving.

Wine Suggestion: We would usually pair lamb with red wine but it’s important to think about the sauce when you are matching wine with food. This dish has quite an intense lemon flavour and the sauce is rich which calls more for a full-bodied white such as an oaked Sémillon.

(Original recipe from Nigel Slater’s Tender Volume 1, Fourth Estate, 2009.)

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