Braised Lamb Shanks

With the cold of winter setting in I have been hanging out for some good old fashioned comfort food. One of my favourite comfort meals is lamb shanks which are braised slowly in a cast iron baking tray or casserole. For this recipe I used Frenched lamb shanks. (Shanks which have been trimmed to remove excess fat and tendon) Not only do they look nicer on the plate but are a healthier option with reduced fat. Braising meat is an excellent slow cooking method for tougher cuts of meat as it keeps the meat moist. Braising involves dusting the meat in seasoned flour then browning it in a pan in oil and finishing the cooking process by slow cooking with liquid such as stock, in a casserole. This final process can be done in an oven, stovetop or electric slow cooker.

Braised Lamb Shanks

3 tbs olive oil

2 brown onions diced

4 garlic cloves crushed

2 carrots diced

4 celery stalks diced

1 cup flour seasoned with salt and pepper

8 lamb shanks

1 can diced tomato

1-2 cups chicken or vegetable stock

2 bay leaves

Sea salt and pepper

Preheat your oven to 180 C.

Toss the lamb shanks into a large bowl containing the seasoned flour ensuring the shanks are evenly coated.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and brown the lamb shanks in small batches and transfer the shanks into a heavy based baking dish or casserole.

Lightly sauté the vegetables in the frying pan adding additional oil if necessary. And add 2 tbs of the seasoned flour to the mixture coating the sautéed vegetables.

Add the diced tomato to the frying pan and heat through then transfer the contents into the baking dish coating the lamb shanks.

Deglaze the frying pan with the stock and bay leaves and pour the stock over the lamb shanks to just cover them. Adjust the stock to suit the size of your casserole and quantity of ingredients.

Cover the baking dish with foil and place it into the preheated oven to bake for 1 hour at 180°C then reduce the heat to 160°C for another 1½ to 2 hours or until the meat begins to fall off the bone.

Serve with potato mash, steamed green vegetables and remaining sauce from the braised lamb shanks.

Wine: Penfolds Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon 1998 and Parker Terra Rossa Cabernet Sauvignon 2005

Osso Bucco

Winter is approaching and as the weather is getting cooler in the afternoons and evenings I tend to focus my cooking on soups, roasts and other slow cooked meals. One favorite recipe is Osso Bucco. My first encounter with this recipe was when I was cooking in the SAS Officer’s Mess as part of my National Service Training.  Santo Ferarra, a civilian cook employed at the Mess, was my mentor and taught me all the tricks of the cooking trade including how to make this dish. Back then we would have used beef shin instead of veal and this works perfectly, it just may require a bit more cooking.  Fortunately now we have good supplies of veal in our supermarket and local butchers so I recently stocked up in anticipation of making this recipe.

Long_mach and the truffle were coming over to share Sunday dinner so it was an opportunity to make this recipe and also have a go at making the Master Chef recipe Crème Brulee. Happy to say the Osso Bucco and accompanying wine was a success. Unfortunately the Crème Brulee did not set, so it will be back to the test kitchen to see what went wrong – I’ll try again and post of the recipe when I have nailed it!

Osso Bucco

Ingredients (Serves 4)

4 centre bone cut pieces of veal Osso Bucco (approx 800gms)

½ cup plain flour seasoned with sea salt and ground pepper
4 tbs extra virgin olive oil

100gms butter
2 brown onions diced

2 celery stalks diced

1 carrot diced
3 cloves garlic diced
1 cup dry white wine

2 tbs tomato paste
2 x 400gms tins diced tomato
1 cup chicken stock
2 sprigs fresh thyme

200 gms Button or Swiss brown mushrooms
2 bay leaves
Sea salt, ground black pepper

Gremolata
1 bunch flat-leaf parsley finely chopped

1 clove garlic finely minced

1 lemon zest finely minced

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Preparation

Preheat fan forced oven to 180°C. 

First make your base – the ‘Holy Trinity’ or ‘soffritto’ (used in most soup and casserole recipes and consist of onions, celery and carrot lightly sautéed in oil and butter.)

Add half of the olive oil and butter to a large baking dish or cast iron casserole and lightly sauté the onion, celery and carrot – remove and set aside.

Dust veal portions in seasoned flour.

Add the remaining olive oil and butter to the baking dish and lightly brown the floured veal portions - remove and set aside.

Deglaze the baking dish with white wine and when the wine is nearly fully reduced add the tomato paste and cook for a minute then add the canned tomato, vegetables and veal.

Add the stock, bay leaves, thyme and seasoning - if necessary add additional water to just cover the Osso Bucco.

Bring to the boil, and then cover the baking dish with foil or casserole lid and place into the pre heated oven for 1.5 to 2 hours. Check the veal for tenderness and adjust cooking time until the veal falls off the bone. Check seasoning adding extra if necessary. If there is too much liquid do not replace foil or lid to allow any excess liquid to reduce to a nice sauce consistency.

Prior to serving stir through the gremolata.

Serve with mashed potato and steamed green vegetables.

Beverage: Fraser Gallop 2008 Cabernet Merlot.