Lamb Shanks with Vegetables

I know there are possibly hundreds of shanks recipes out there. However, this one has to be one of the most flavoursome going around. It is certainly one of M & B Dad’s favourites. So much so, that he knows the recipe by heart and cooks it himself now. He always cooks up double the recipe and freezes a meal or two for those “easy” nights. He even has requests for it from his friends and of course, as this Dad loves to do, jumps immediately to the task and takes any opportunity to accept praise being handed out for this really easy, (well, all right…..fairly easy) and extremely tasty dish.

The instructions below recommend an ovenproof casserole and cooking time of approximately 2 hours; however, if you are short on time, there is always the pressure cooker which would reduce the cooking time to around 40 – 50 minutes.

He was given “Gabriel Gate’s Good Food for Men” cook book for Father’s Day many
moons ago ……….  Page 178 refers. That’s where this story started and ends.

Ingredients

1 tbls olive oil
4 lamb shanks trimmed of all visible fat
3 sprigs of thyme
½ brown onion chopped
1 tbls red wine vinegar or ½ cup dry white wine
1 ½ cups Italian-style tomato sauce, bottled or home-made
1 cup water
1 clove garlic, crushed
8 baby carrots, peeled and left whole
2 sticks celery, cut into 5cm (2 in) pieces
1 red capsicum, and cut into eighths
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat oven to 150C (300F)
Heat oil in large casserole dish and brown the shanks for a few minutes. Add thyme and onion and stir for 2 – 3 minutes. Add the vinegar, tomato sauce and water and stir before adding garlic, whole carrots, celery and capsicum.

Season with salt and pepper and mix around. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook in the preheated oven for about two (2) hours or until the meat comes away from the bone.

Serve with boiled potatoes or mash. Sweet potato mash is yummy. If you need your greens go for it.

Enjoy! M x