4 lamb shanks, medium-sized from your craft butcher
1 carrot, chopped
1 onion, chopped,
1 leek, sliced
salt and pepper
1 bay leaf
1.4 pints/500 ml beef or chicken stock
About 100 mls (a cup) red wine
Lamb
Preheat oven to 325°f/160°c/gas 3. Season shanks with salt and pepper. Put a casserole on medium heat and add a tablespoon of olive oil and saute shanks until browned all over. Take out of pan and set aside.
In the same pan soften the onion, carrot, leek, with the bay leaf, about 10-15 minutes over a medium heat. Stir in wine and stock. Add shanks. (Rachel Allen adds barley here, see below). Cover and cook in the oven for one hour, turn them over carefully and cook for a further 30 minutes, or until the meat is tender and falling off the bone.
Place shanks in a warm place on a baking tray. Strain cooking liquid and cook in a saucepan until reduced by about half.
See also Rachel Allen's 'Rachel's Favourite Food' p 165 for another great recipe for lamb shanks.
Potatoes
Some suggestions here; it's hard to beat mash with this dish!
Prepare mashed potatoes using real butter and full milk (even a little cream!) as you would normally.
(A tip from Rachel Allen. Add the potatoes to boiling water. Add a little mint and a big pinch of salt.)
For a little variety make champ by adding a handful of thin sliced scallions, or some parsnip which can be cooked with the potato or add a little Dijon mustard (about a desertspoon full) and mix well.
Also very tasty but less absorbent of the juices is baked Rosemary and garlic potatoes.
Cut medium sized potatoes into uneven quarters and place in a pre heated baking tin with olive oil. (if potatoes are large cut them into smaller pieces)
Add garlic cloves, peeled or unpeeled and sprinkle over with rosemary petals and toss verything to ensure coverage with the oil.
They will take about 45 minutes cooking so add to the oven after the shanks have been in for about an hour or so. They will be done when the potatoes have browned slightly but judge how crispy you want them.
NB; If you have left the garlic unpeeled peel them now and try the garlic for taste. It's nothing like the 'raw' garlic taste associated with garlic bread, for example. It will spread!
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