When I see lamb shank on a menu, I find it hard not to choose it. I love the way the meat clings on for dear life to the bone the way the last autumn leaf perilously holds on to the tree. I love the burst of flavor that invariably explodes on your tongue with the first mouthful. I love the way it comforts me on a cold winter’s night. I even love the little strands of meat that collect in between my teeth.
Most of all though, I love the fact that you don’t need a recipe to cook a good shank. So long as you have a half-decent liquor and an oven that can cook it long and slow, you won’t fail.
So what follows is the method I used the last occasion I cooked shanks and this was determined by what I happened to have available to me at the time.
Ready
- 1 lamb shank per person
- Carrots
- Onions
- Celery
- Coriander seeds (maybe a teaspoonful)
- Fennel seeds (maybe a teaspoonful)
- 1 red chilli
- 1 lime
- Garlic
- Bottle of red wine (full-bodied)
- Beef stock (maybe a couple of cups)
- Tomato paste
- Worcester sauce
- Olive oil
- 1 Tbsp of brown sugar
- Anything else that you have lying around that takes your fancy
Set
- Skillet
- Mortar and pestle
- A heavy casserole dish
- Saucepan
Go
- I made a rub by dry-roasting the fennel and coriander seeds in a skillet for a minute or so and crushing them using a mortar and pestle.
- Add to this a couple of garlic cloves, some salt and pepper, a finely chopped chilli (totally optional) and the rind of the lime. Pound it to a pulp. Add a tablespoon or so of olive oil. This should be enough for a couple, if not three shanks. Make more if necessary.
- Smear this all over the shanks and leave to marinate for as long as you’ve got (a couple of hours should be fine, all day even better).
- Heat the casserole and add a glug of oil.
- Brown the shanks on all sides and remove.
- To the casserole add an onion, quartered, a couple of sliced carrots and a roughly sliced celery stalk. Stir it around for a few minutes.
- Add the wine, a dash Worcester sauce, perhaps a tablespoon of tomato paste, the stock and sugar. Season well.
- Return the shanks to the pot. The meat should be covered by the liquor. Add water if necessary.
- Cover and cook on a low oven for around 3 hours.
- Once cooked, very gently remove the shanks (you don’t want the meat to fall off). Keep them warm somewhere.
- Strain the liquor into a saucepan and reduce as far as you want to go. The sauce will thicken and become intense in flavor.
- When it is to your liking, pour it over the lamb shanks and serve with lashings of piping hot mash potato.