Day 2 of CPW has lamb shanks on the menu. A traditional winter favourite, but actually not something i have cooked before, or really even eaten that much. I've had it a couple of times in London pubs, but haven't really had a the chance to have it home cooked too much. Thankfully my flatmates had a 4-pack of shanks delivered as part of a meat order from Grab One (keep an eye out there, great pack for about $60 with shitloads of meat). Anyway... on to the important stuff... the food!
WHAT.
4 x lamb shanks (no idea what they weighed, plus we can only fit 4 in our cooker)
2 onions
Button mushrooms
Garlic
1 large carrot
Dry red wine (got a great Gunn Estate Pinot Noir on special for $10 down from about $18)
Balsamic vinegar
Wholegrain mustard
Fresh rosemary (so much better than dried, don't skimp)
Fresh parsley
Salt (quite a bit) & pepper, cooking oil
Beef stock cube
Cornflour
(Sorry about the shitty pic, doesn't have a few ingredients in there)
HOW.
Brown your lamb shanks. Much like last night's recipe, do not be afraid of the heat - you are not trying to cook the shanks at all, just get a nice caramelisation on the outside. Brown it up! Season with plenty of salt and pepper before putting into the pan.
You want a good 3-4min on each side on full heat. Whilst you are doing that, you want to take your 2 onions and cut them into wedges. I read a few recipes online that recommended I find mini onions, like the ones they pickle, but they weren't readily available at the supermarket. When you're cutting your wedges try to keep the bottom of the onion in tact, this helps them hold together and gives quite a different sweetness to their flavour, I think. Like so:
Next you also want to make sure your carrot is nicely diced into approx 1cm pieces, and your garlic is finely chopped. I'm a big garlic fan so use a lot of it in my cooking - I think I used about 4 cloves this morning. From there, throw 4 of the wedges (one onion) into the crock pot, and keep the other 4 ready to go into the pan with your other fresh ingredients. Remove the shanks from the pan and put them in your crock.
Into the pan go your carrots, garlic, onion wedges and mushrooms. Do not clean out your pan or empty out the oil, it all adds to the flavour. Also bear in mind I went to the trouble of selecting nice, small button mushrooms so that I didn't have to cut them. The bite sized mushrooms have a nice texture to eat, I think. Don't forget to season.
This should take about 5min tops, so during that time you want to combine about 1 cup of the red wine, a generous splash of balsamic, 3tblsp of wholegrain mustard and your finely chopped rosemary. It will look like a disgusting soup. Add it to your pan, with everything still on high heat. Adding liquid to a hot pan like this will help you get the delicious flavours off the bottom - "de-glazing".
Once you've sizzled this off for a couple of minutes, pour it all over the top of your shanks, chop up half your parsley and add that to the mix too. Put the lid on, and you want to cook it on low for 8-10hrs.
Now here's where a bit of cooking experience came in handy. When I came home about 10hrs after cooking, I found a couple of things. Firstly that there wasn't *quite* as much liquid as I wanted, and the liquid I did have was a bit watery. So I took the shanks out of the pot, plated them on the mashed potatoes...
(Served with some yummy mash. If you're always wondering about how to make creamy mash, then just experiment a little. Try not to add too much milk, and add a bit more butter. Don't be afraid to "over" cook the potatoes, and make sure the water is heavily salted. Also add 3-4 cloves of peeled garlic when you're boiling. Final tip is to add in an egg when you're mashing, and really get stuck in. All of this produces a nice creamy texture. I also added a chopped handful of the remaining parsley to add a bit of extra flavour. Yummy.)
To thicken the sauce and add some flavour I put a tbslp of cornflour and half a beef stock cube into the bottom of a mug, added about 1/3 of a cup of boiling water and mixed to ensure no lumps. Added it to the shank-sauce and through it all in a saucepan on HIGH... Not ideal but I had to work quickly owing to the fact that I had plated up the shanks & spuds already. Anyway you'll find that your sauce will thicken up nicely and reduce a little over a period of about 5min or so, and your shanks won't get too cold. then just spoon the mixture over the top.
Although not the best picture, it was fucking delicious. This recipe was absolutely perfect for 4 people, having one generously sized portion each. The lamb was so tender it fell off the bone, the sauce was just right (in the end!) and the spuds were velvety and decadent. Universal praise.
8.5/10
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