Ewe and lamb (copyright Nicholas Tarling)

Lamb shanks are perfect for long slow cooking. The price has shot up over the years and now they are expensive to buy. Luckily Danny found some on the Tesco *CFC and I came up with this recipe. Lamb shanks actually have quite a bit of meat on them so we managed to get six good meaty portions out of the shanks. And of course bone in meat makes a much better casserole.

The key ingredients were the shallots and tomato. Our one remaining onion had gone bad so I grabbed some of the shallots that we grew last summer. We had our best ever harvest this year and unlike most onions, shallots keep very well over the winter. As ours were quite small, I just halved them. They looked pretty and were sweetly melt in the mouth. Note to self – must use shallots more often.

I spotted that Gary Rhodes often puts a tomato into a slow cooked dish, so I’ve started to do the same. You can’t taste tomato but it does seem to add that special something.

The wine that I used was a Chianti that just happened to be knocking about in the kitchen. This combined with some lamb stock made a lighter gravy that was surprisingly tantalising and tasty as it allowed the flavour of the herbs and juniper berries to come through. Sometimes the darker gravy that people serve with lamb shaks can taste a bit is if an old leather inner sole has been simmered in the pot too.

I also used Kate UK’s tip and covered the shanks with a doubled sheet of greaseproof paper so the parts above the surface of the liquid did not dry out.

This is definitely a recipe to make in advance. This allows the dish to get quite cold and then it’s easy to remove the lamb fat that has set on the surface of the gravy. Letting the dish get cold also seems to magically improve the flavours.

Recipe for lamb shanks braised in red wine with shallots

Ingredients:
2 lamb shanks 950g
300ml of light red wine
500ml of hot lamb stock
0.5 tsp anchovy sauce
1 tsp of balsamic
2” sprig of rosemary (crushed)
1 bay leaf (crushed)
0.5 tsp dried savory (or thyme at a pinch)
100g of carrots – peeled and sliced fine
100g of shallots – peeled and halved
100g of celery – sliced very fine
1 medium tomato – chopped
2 table of plain flour (seasoned)
4 fat juniper berries
5 fat cloves of garlic (pressed and chopped fine)

Method:
Prepare the shallots, carrots, tomato and celery and make a nest at the bottom of your slow cooker. Roll the lamb shanks in the seasoned flour and place them on the vegetables.

Add the garlic, juniper berries, rosemary, bay leaf, anchovy sauce and balsamic vinegar. Pour over the wine and the hot lamb stock. Place a doubled piece of greaseproof paper over the casserole and put on the lid. Switch to high until the liquid is bubbling well – this will take about an hour.

Then turn to low for three hours, turning the shanks over after an hour and a half. After three hours, test to see whether the lamb is tender. Remove immediately to a cold place (the dish will keep on cooking in the slow cooker for ages even if the cooker is turned off).

Remove the fat the next day. Gently reheat and serve with mashed potatoes and lots of green vegetables.

Lamb shanks with apricots and tomatoes

Years ago lamb shanks were a very cheap cut of meat. Now, with the return to forgotten cuts, they have become increasingly popular and the price for a couple of shanks has become quite high. So when I found a couple of these tasty lovelies half price on the Tesco CFC I squirreled them into my basket with a trill.

Lamb shanks, like oxtail, always used to flag a warming winter dish to me. Judging by the amount of shanks that appear regularly on the CFC at this time of year most people would agree.

But why not try and create a summery dish? The sort of tantalising plate that might be guzzled way off the beaten track in France or Italy – with a wedge of fresh crusty bread and a carafe of good local red wine. Simple and delicious food, eaten elbows in, amongst people that expect to eat well every day.

My friend Bunty grew up in France. She calls her meals ‘peasant food’. She has cooked me some of the best dishes that I’ve tasted. The secret is simple – imagination and seasonal ingredients. She does have a few vital tips.
“Of course bone in joints create a much better sauce. If you are watching the pennies removing the meat from the bones before serving is an excellent way of disguising the fact that you don’t have a lot of meat in your pot. Add loads of vegetables and a few beans as they soak up the meat juices and satisfy completely.”

Most people also think of a slow cooker/crock pot as a winter appliance. Having played around with the slow cooker I reckon that this is crazy as there are so many dishes that can be cooked throughout the year. The key is to give each dish a seasonal feel by adding fresh local vegetables and herbs. Slow cooking improves the flavour of casseroles, curries, stews and so much more.

Our best light bolognaise sauce http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/our-best-bolognaise-sauce-recipe-847 simmers away throughout the year in our slow cooker. The same ingredients cooked on the stove top just don’t taste as good. Stove top cooking and oven baking also use a lot more electricity. The slower cooker is a simple device – it improves flavours and saves fuel. It’s a win win.

Sometimes, when we are trying to develop a new recipe we have to try two or three times to come up with a recipe that works well and tastes good. Anyone for a week of burgers, toad in the hole, savoury pancakes? Luckily the kitchen sprites were fluttering around and the first attempt of the lamb dish tasted great.

Our two shanks were quite weighty so easily fed us for two meals which can only be a bonus. Not having crusty bread I teamed them with minty couscous – very easy to make if you have a lot of mint to hand. With cous cous we always use stock rather than water to give it more flavour. The minty cous cous cut through the richness of the lamb and was far better than the basmati rice that we tried with the dish the next day.

The left over juices made a very good soup for lunch on the third day.

Slow cooked summery lamb shanks recipe

Ingredients:

200g of flageolet beans (rinsed and soaked the night before)
900g of lamb shanks
1 medium red onion
150g of soft dried (ready to eat) apricots – halved
500ml of hot lamb stock – I used a stock cube
5 chunky garlic cloves – peeled
1 tbsp of coriander powder
1 tsp of ginger powder
5 allspice berries
1 tbsp of honey
1 tbsp of mushroom ketchup
Half tsp of anchovy sauce
Half tsp of Lea & Perrins
2 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp of flour

Method:

Rinse the soaked flageolet beans. Cover with fresh water and simmer rapidly for 20 mins and drain.
Mix the flour with a little of the stock to form a runny paste and stop the flour sticking to the base of the pot.
Add all the ingredients – except the lamb shanks – to the pot and stir well
Place the lamb shanks in the pot
Turn to high for an hour or until the liquid is bubbling and then switch to low for at least 4 hours. Test the shanks and the beans after 3 hours just in case.

Serve with crusty bread or herby cous cous

Photo: A very bad photo of a very good meal

I used not to be much of a fan of lamb casserole or stew. I think that I made it once for Danny and didn’t like it as it tasted bland and fattylike all the lamb casseroles I’d tasted before. Back then I didn’t have a slow cooker/crock pot – which is great for enhancing the flavour of cheaper cuts of meat.

This week the scales fell from my eyes when I used some lamb shoulder neck chops at the Highgate Farm Shop. Six chunky chops (900g) for just over four quid. Feeling thrifty I bought them, determined to make something good.

Slow cooking melted the sinews away and along with the bones helped to make a tasty sauce. This sauce turned into a thick jelly when chilled. So I’m going to go for a bone in cut from now on.

I’m sure that loads of people have been doing this for years but I discovered a way of easily removing all the fat from the casserole that you might find useful. I put two small plates over the meat and vegetables and pressed them down well before chilling overnight. In the morning the plates were surrounded by fat and when I lifted them off the fat came too.

This is now going to be standard practice to easily remove the fat from all dishes that need to rest overnight. No more dawdling, which you have to do when picking fat out with a teaspoon. The end of feeling guilty about giving up half way through. Don’t tell Danny.

We ate this dish last night and it was delicious – even I had seconds. I served the chops whole but if I’d been feeling really economical could have removed the meat from the bones, when cooked and easily eked out the portions from 6 to 8.

This recipe is best cooked in a slow cooker or crock pot.

Slow cooked lamb casserole recipe for 6-8

Ingredients:

900g of lamb shoulder neck slices
100g of unsmoked streaky bacon (chopped)
200g of onions chopped fine
250g of parnips (peeled, topped and tailed and chopped into chunky 2-3cm pieces
450g of Chantenay carrots (topped and tailed – skin on)
200g of celeriac (peeled and chopped into 1cm cubes)
1 celery stalk sliced very fine
2 chunky cloves of garlic (chopped very fine)
4 heaped tbsp of plain flour
1 tsp of dried savoury
Half a tsp of anchovy sauce (or 1 anchovy fillet chopped fine)
1350-1400 of boiling chicken stock (I used water and three stock cubes)
1 tsp of vegetable stock powder
Salt and ground white pepper to taste

Method:

Prepare all the vegetables, garlic and herbs and put into a large bowl.
Sprinkle the flour onto a plate and turn the lamb over and over in the flour so all surfaces a coated thickly.
Sprinkle the remaining flour over the bowl of vegetables and stir very well.
Put about a third of the vegetables at the bottom of the slow cooker. Add half the lamb slices, add more vegetables, the rest of the slices and finish off with a final layer of vegetables.
Make the hot stock and stir in the vegetable powder and anchovy sauce. Pour this over the lamb and vegetables making sure that when pressed down they are covered with stock.
Switch the slow cooker to high. When the stock is bubbling well (after about an hour) switch to low for about 3 hours until the meat is tender and the vegetables cooked.
Season with salt and ground white pepper to taste (it needs quite a bit of pepper but add this incrementally to avoid disaster).
As with many slow cooked dishes, this will be far tastier if chilled overnight. So it’s a perfect dish for cooking  in advance.