Slow Cooked Lamb Shanks in Red Wine

Summerwine's Note:

My slightly varied version of Gary Rhodes delicious Lamb Shank recipe. Truly mouth-watering moist and tender! I’ve made this a few times now. The first time I made this I used a medium bodied wine and it turned out just as fantastic. If you want to make this exactly like Gary’s then only use 1 carrot, 2 cloves garlic, 1 sprig of rosemary, do all the stovetop and oven cooking in large stew pan or dutch oven, use beef consommé instead of beef stock and the thickening of the red wine sauce is optional. This is a truly wonderful meal and worthy of a dinner party, special occasion or just a romantic meal. I hope you like it as much as we do.

• Total Time: 3 hrs 20 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 3 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 4 (1 1/2 lb) lamb shanks
• 2 large carrots, roughly chopped
• 1 onion, sliced
• 3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 sprigs rosemary
• 750 ml full-bodied red wine (1 bottle)
• 2 cups beef stock
• 1 tablespoon soft brown sugar
• 1 -2 teaspoon cornflour (cornstarch)
• olive oil, for cooking
• salt & pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 F degrees.
2. Season the lamb shanks with salt and pepper.
3. In a large frying pan brown the lamb shanks on all sides in the olive oil; remove from pan and put into a large casserole dish to keep warm.
4. In the same frying pan put in the carrots, onions, garlic, bay leaves and rosemary and cook slowly until nicely colored.
5. Pour in the red wine, beef stock, and brown sugar into the frying pan and stir gently bringing it to a low boil.
6. Pour the wine mixture over the lamb shanks; top up with water if needed.
7. Cover; put in oven and cook for 2 1/2 – 3 hours until very tender.
8. Remove the lamb shanks and keep warm and skim the fat off the top of the red wine juices.
9. Mix together the cornflour with just a bit of cold water and whisk the cornflour mixture into the red wine juices until desired consistency.
10. Serve up on individual plates and enjoy.

Reviews

[Chef #423433]

We have made this recipe on several occasions, and yes you are right it is absolutely delicious. I can't get enough of the sauce. Very impressive dinner party recipe and easy to do. We just love it. My tip would be to use the best consomme you can find. We use stock cubes once and it wasnt as nice as using a lovely consomme, and always splash out on the wine too, you will not regret it.

[CovinaCook]

I tripled this recipe for Christimas dinner party. Prep time, including browning of lamb shanks, was about 1 1/2 hrs. I used 3 moderately priced bottles of cabernet sauvignon, which seemed to work out fine. However, I found 6 cups of beef bouillon (original recipe X3) to be slightly over powering--changing the flavor of the lamb too much for my taste. The yellow onions worked well as suggested by another reviewer. I'd probably use half as much bouillon next time to strenghten the lamb flavor a bit or add more water which I did with one baking pan. Also, might try something to sweeten the sauce more like adding more brown sugar. Merot wine goes great with this dish if you maintain the lamb flavor, so strong recommendation on this wine combination. The two lamb shank leftovers were better than original--so preparing this a day early is also an option. Loved it. Thank you.

[Chef #968428]

It was awesome, everyone truly enjoyed this mouth watering dish. I used more garlic and beef broth. It was very flavourful and tender, definitely a make again.