Lamb Shanks

Lamb shanks cooked until tender with mushrooms and onions in a red wine sauce.  A simple entree that will impress.

My husband loves lamb.  I had never had lamb until I met him and I just recently tried cooking it for the first time.  Lamb can be kind of expensive so I only pick it up when I have a coupon or it's on sale (or both).  So I had these lamb shanks that I wasn't sure what to do with.  I knew that they required a lot of cooking time but I didn't want anything too difficult.  Of course I went to the internet to figure out how it should be done (how did people cook before the internet ;)).  There I found many recipes and learned the basic method for cooking a good lamb shank, braising.  This is a combination recipe of what I liked about some of the recipes minus what I didn't like.  Even though it cooks for a long time I thought it was pretty simple.  No complicated ingredients or procedures and only a little work then you just let it cook.  My husband was happy and I wasn't tired.  He even said it felt like a special occasion because he usually only gets delicious lamb shanks at restaurants.  So if you have the time try this recipe lamb lovers will love it.

I also wonder if this is something you could do in a slow cooker.  I was only cooking for 2 and we have a gigantic slow cooker so it would have been over kill to drag it out...but maybe if cooking for a crowd.  Although, I think braised lamb shanks are a perfect romantic dinner for two.

Lamb Shanks

Ingredients:

2 lamb shanks
1-2 Tbsp oil
1 onion, sliced
10-20 mushrooms, halved or quartered
2 tomatoes, diced
1 cup red wine
1 14.5 oz can chicken broth
thyme
rosemary
1 bay leaf
a few cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
salt and pepper to taste

Season the shanks all over with salt and pepper.  Then brown them on all sides over medium high heat with a little oil. (I used a cast iron skillet but any skillet would be fine).

Remove the shanks from the pan and set aside.  Drain the oil.

Add a little fresh oil back to the pan then saute the mushrooms and onions until slightly softened (salt and pepper to taste).  Add the tomatoes and cook until soft.

Add the red wine and allow it to reduce by half then add the herbs and garlic.  Put the shanks back in the pan and pour in enough chicken broth to cover them by half.  Bring to a boil then cover and lower temperature to a bare simmer.  Allow to gently simmer for 3 hours adding more broth if it gets too low.

Alternately you can move the skillet into a 325 F oven and cook for 3 hours.

Taste for seasoning then serve shanks with the mushrooms and onions and your choice of vegetable.

Makes 2 servings.  Enjoy.

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