Slow cooked Lamb Shanks

Wow, it’s just 3°c outside this morning in Melbourne, Australia.  Our slow cooked lamb shanks is jsut what the doctor orderde for winter dinners.  This is one of those dishes that will definitely make you feel all warm and cosy inside.

Lamb shanks can be slow-cooked in a myriad of ways, even with just a handful of ingredients. My suggestion would always be to thoroughly brown the meat and add some colour to your vegetables before commencing the lengthy cooking procedure. I understand if you’re pressed for time, but I’ve frequently intervened when individuals were about to prematurely remove their pans from the oven, believing they’d achieved the right amount of browning. I usually encourage them to let it cook a bit longer.

Let me set the scene, it’s first thing in the morning, and you know you won’t want to cook dinner when you get home tonight. You don’t have time to do the usual flavour-enhancing techniques you would normally have time for. So here’s what I do. I just threw everything in a roasting tin, get a lid on or some foil and slow roast.  My recipe below gives you some options, but the idea is to keep it simple.

This recipe uses onion as a base ingredient. If you want to know why so many dishes use onion and what sort of onion is best for certain dishes, read this post.

The addition of my herb blend and the Continental Stock Pot will give you enough flavour to be comforted when you get home. To this, I would just add some mash or quick polenta. Yum

Please read the whole recipe first so you can see what choices you have.

Slow cooked Lamb Shanks

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becs-table.com.au

Lamb Shanks are such comfort food. They have to be one of the easiest dinners to prepare and cook. You just can't go wrong if you give them time.

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 8 hours hrs

Total Time 8 hours hrs 10 minutes mins

Difficulty Easy

Course Dinner, Lunch

Cuisine Various

Servings 2

Method Conventional

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Equipment

• Slow cooker (or something else suitable for a long slow cook)

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 2 lamb shanks
• 1 carrot
• 2 sticks celery
• 1 onion
• 2 anchovies optional
• 1 tsp of my Herb Blend *see notes for this recipe or use any Italian herb blend
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 Continental stock pots *see notes

Instructions

 

• Cut the carrot, celery and onion into cubes and place in the slow cooker or roasting tin.
• Add the lamb shanks
• If you're using a slow cooker just pop on the lid and set. I find the long setting works best on mine if you have a choice. But these days I tend to use my Breville smart oven. I take a small roasting tray and add all the ingredients as listed above, cover with foil and set it at Slow Cook Lo that's the 8-hour setting. if you don't have one of these clever little ovens you can pop it in your big oven, set it to 110c and give it 6 – 8 hours.
• Around 1/2 way through the cooking I open it up and add the remainder of the ingredients give everything a stir and baste the lamb in the juices. (the little stock pot melts this way but you could add everything at the start.)
• At the end of the cooking time I turn the little oven I have to grill and cook for 10 minutes but in a normal oven, you could just turn the temp up to 200c and cook until it starts to brown a bit. All this is optional of course but I like to thicken the sauce and brown it a bit if I didn't do that at the start.
• Serve with mash or polenta. I like to add some greens cause I feel bad if I don't – LOL

Notes

If your gravy is too liquid and there is way too much to reduce and thicken in the slow cooker or oven, you can make a slurry of a tbsp of cornflour and a couple of tbsp of the pan juices. Do this in a little jug or mug, mix well to combine. Remove the lamb and veg from the tray or slow cooker and mix the cornflour slurry into the juices.  Then cook it off in a pot on the stove or use the microwave in short bursts stirring in between to thicken.

Continental stockpots are delish.  I’m using them a lot these days to add flavour if I don’t have any of my own stock.  Click the link to check them out.  If you can’t get them, any type of stock cube will be fine. Don’t add too much liquid.

My herb blend recipe is a little more rounded than some of the Italian mixes you get from the shops. Here’s the recipe for it.  I use it in all sorts of things.   

Want to know more?

If you are a little short on time, you might try our oven baked lamb shanks, as it can be cooked in just 3 hours.