Rich and Comforting Slow Cooker Lamb Shanks in Red Wine

Never used to like lamb (too fatty) but am a recent convert and this is my favourite. Have done it with leg of lamb too and that works just as well, but less meat for the same cost. Really easy to do, mix and match your ingredients if you don't have the exact same ones. Also freezes really well so I'll do this every few weeks and stock up the freezer. We tend to serve with mustard mash for the ultimate comfort food.

• Ready In: 8 hrs 10 mins
• Serves: 9
• Yields: 9

Ingredients

• 6  lamb shanks
• 4 -10  garlic cloves, minced
• 375  ml red wine
• 200  ml  balsamic vinegar (optional)
• 1⁄2 teaspoon  smoked paprika
• 1  teaspoon harissa or 1  teaspoon cayenne
• 1  tablespoon  vegetable oil
• 3 (15 ounce) cans  French onion soup
• 1 (15 ounce) can chopped tomatoes
• 1  tablespoon cornflour or 1  tablespoon cornstarch

Directions

1. Brown the lamb shanks and place in the slow cooker. Add the onion soup, minced garlic and the chopped tomatoes.
2. Add the oil and spices to a frying pan, and heat and stir. As the spices start to cook (darken in colour, very aromatic), add the wine and vinegar, whack up the heat and reduce to half volume. Add the reduction to the slow cooker and cook for 7-8 hours. An hour before serving, add the made-up cornflour to thicken the sauce. Alternatively, if you're not a fan of cornflour (am starting to go off it myself!), then you can add some instant mashed potato to thicken the sauce instead.
3. I tend to take the shanks out at about 6 hours, remove the lamb skin (yuk!) and take the meat off the bone and back into the sauce to absorb more flavour. It also means that instead of serving one shank per person, you can actually get 9 good sized meals out of the 6 shanks.