Braised Lamb Shanks

July 2, 2001

We went out to watch the All Blacks rugby team beat France on Saturday night, as guests of the Canterbury Rugby Union. The game was actually played in Wellington, about 300 kilometres north of here so instead we went to a local bar. But this was no ordinary bar.

Some entrepreneurial types bought an old cinema and have turned it into a sports bar with a huge screen on one wall which relays the match of the moment via Sky TV. The bones of the old cinema have been retained so there are several levels of racked seating to enable people to have a grandstand view of proceedings - or to remain on the ground floor.

We started the evening in a little lounge area where we had drinks, antipasto platters and mains before taking in the match.

It was a pretty chilly night outside, so it was no surprise that most of the people at our table elected to have that wonderful winter comfort food - lamb shanks and mash.

Goodness know what happened to all those shanks in the days before the dish got trendy. I can recall roasting them occasionally when the sons were little.

These days, however, lamb shanks are on just about every restaurant menu once the temperatures start dipping.

I have found the price of shanks can vary hugely from one butchery department to another. The pack-it-yourself food barns tend to regard them as cheap fodder - maybe even dog-food? However, the supermarkets in the trendier suburbs offer them at double the price. It pays to shop around.

My personal preference is to make the dish one day, allow it to cool and them remove any fat before rehearing the next day. While it's possible to trim the fat from the shanks before cooking, there's quite a bit of hidden stuff that's impossible to remove and it's easier to wait for it to come out of hiding by itself. Besides, the flavour improves overnight, good enough reason for me!

Braised Lamb Shanks

4-8 lamb shanks
2 medium onions, sliced
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 can peeled tomatoes in juice
1/2 cup beef stock or water and beef bouillon cubes
1/2 cup red wine
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon dill seeds
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon ground cumin

Place all the ingredients in an ovenproof dish and cover. If you don't have a large enough casserole, then use a large, shallow pan and cover it with aluminium foil. Bake at 150C for about 3 hours until the meat is falling off the bone. Set aside for a day, removing any fat, thicken with flour and water and reheat before serving. Or, if you wish to use immediately, skim off the fat and thicken the gravy with a couple of tablespoons of flour blended with a little water.

Serve with mashed potatoes, or a mash of carrots and parsnips. Blend either with a couple of tablespoons of butter.

Accompany with a green vegetable, or a side salad.

Some recipes will recommend browning the lambshanks in oil before cooking, but I don't really think this is necessary. The all-in-one method tastes pretty much the same and who wants to do extra work in the kitchen?