Red wine lamb shanks with rosemary pancetta roast potatoes
Today I had a failed trip to buy a HUGE pork shoulder to make pulled pork for dinner. Sad face, I've been hankering for some dirty south american soul food for weeks now.
Instead, I came home with two rather sizeable lamb shanks and a bottle of Fitou (red wine seems to be a bit of a theme for this week).
Slow cooked lamb loveliness it is then, with a side of scrummy potatoes roasted with garlic, pancetta and rosemary - what could be better?
Oil - sunflower, vegetable, olive, whatevs
1 x leek, roughly chopped
1 x onion, roughly chopped
2 x carrots, roughly chopped
Rosemary, thyme, a bay leaf, sea salt and black pepper
250ml chicken stock (mine was homemade, natch)
A generous helping of red wine plus a slug of port if you fancy it - approx. 250ml in total
Potatoes - good roasting ones, enough to feed 2 generously
50g ish of pancetta, cubed/chopped
1. Pre-heat oven to 150 degrees.
2. Heat a slug of oil in a casserole dish on the hob, then brown your shanks all over one at a time, a couple of minutes each, turning regularly so they don't stick.
3. When both shanks are browned and resting, chuck the leek, onion and carrots into the dish with a couple of cloves of garlic (lightly crushed by the side of a knife) and cook for a couple of minutes. Meanwhile, chop a couple of sprigs of rosemary and thyme.
4. Add the herbs plus a bay leaf to the pot and stir, then place the lamb shanks back in, on top of the herby veg.
5. Pour the stock, wine and port over the meat, then pop a lid on the dish and cook in the oven for approx. 3 hours (a little less if your shanks are small).
6. Whilst this cooks away, peel your tatties and cut into small-ish chunks (roast potato sized).
7. Pop the potatoes into a small roasting dish with the pancetta, a couple of crushed cloves of garlic, some more chopped rosemary and a little thyme.
8. Season with a little sea salt and a generous amount of ground black pepper and liberally apply olive oil. Mix it all up so the potatoes are covered nicely.
9. The potatoes will need approx. 45 minutes to cook so add them to the oven at the suitable time.
10. When everything is done, take the lamb shanks out of the pot and plate up with the potatoes. Sieve the remaining liquid in the casserole dish and use as a lovely jus/sauce/gravy*.
11. A side of green veg would be a welcome addition and make your meal a little more balanced. I went for buttered savoy cabbage, but a simple steamed broccoli or green beans would also be lovely.
The recipe for the lamb shanks is adapted from a Simon Rimmer recipe on BBC Food, the potato recipe is my own concoction.
