Holy Crap Post! Part Deux

Okay, so here’s the second part of the first…part.

Lamb shanks with red wine and a bunch of other stuff.

Ingredients

Everything in the last post, except a bit more wine (okay, a lot more. We’ll get to that) and lamb shanks instead of fillet or mini-roasts. Oh, and don’t worry about the potato and parsnip, if you’re going to do what I would and make this with fettuccine pasta instead.

Roughly 1-2 kg of shanks. Once cooked, this will literally fall off the bone in an oh-so-deliciously awesome way, so there’s actually less meat than you would think for a kilo or two.

Method

1. Pre-heat your oven. That’s the big boxy thing that looks like a really, really big microwave. I use one that is fan-forced, so apparently we’re special enough to warrant a completely different set of temperature measures. According to a handy, I’ve-only-just-thought-about-this-so-googled-it-and-here’s-what-I’ve-found website, for everyone NOT using a fan-forced oven, add about 10-20 degrees.

2. So. Preheat your oven. I set mine to about 170.

3. Get your heavy-based casserole dish and turn the heat up high, juuuust like part one. While this is going on, get some basic, non-fancy-pants flour. Plain flour is fine. I can never tell the difference anyway. Pour this onto a flat-ish plate, probably a few cups, and quickly roll your raw shanks in it. To be honest, I don’t really know what this does, but every recipe I look at that involves lamb shanks and long cooking involves lamb-dusting. So do it. Don’t ooooverdo it, you don’t need that much. Just coat them.

4. I’m assuming, at this point, that you’ve learned your lesson from the last recipe and have chopped your vegetables already. If not, just…go away. Don’t read any further.

5. Once your pan is heated, throw some oil in (again, I suggest that engine oil won’t taste so hot)
and then brown your shanks one or two at a time, depending on how many will fit in there.

6. Once each shank has been browned nicely, put them on a plate to rest while you do…well, everything else.

7. Throw your garlic, leek and carrot in and fry them off quickly-ish. Once they look a bit squishy, drop everything else in – your crushed tomato, herbs, potato and parsnip if you really want them, stock and the wine. Be liberal with the wine. A good several cups if you want to measure it that desperately, but I just pour for a while.

8. Stir it all up and let it bubble for a few minutes.

9. In the meantime, get a high-sided baking tray and plonk your shanks into that. The one I use is quite deep, which allows for all sorts of saucy goodness to mingle and frolick as it cooks.

10. Take your liquid-stuff off the heat and just pour it straight over the shanks. It’s fun, isn’t it? I love that part. Everything just slops around so nicely and it smells pretty damned good, I must say.

11. Put the tray onto the middle shelf of your oven if possible, but don’t stress if you can’t. Somehow the trays in my oven get moved around so often it’s like someone actually gets up in the middle of the night and rearranges my kitchen, then goes back to bed. No idea why.

12. At this point, things get a little…fuzzy. You can have this as hot or as low as you like, depending on how tender or rare you want your lamb to be. I’d turn the oven down to about 150 here and just leave it alone. LEAVE IT!

13. After half an hour or so, take the tray out, add some sage, basil and oregano and stir it all up a bit. See if you can get some of the sauce to slither over the shanks, or, if you’re feeling particularly coordinated, turn your shanks over.

14. Put it back in the oven and let it sit for a little longer. This can vary from another 15 minutes to another 45, if you like. Turn the heat down a little if you’re leaving it for a longer time than 15 minutes. I don’t really know how this dish is going to work for you, but I’ve seen measurements from half an hour total time to two hours. Obviously, longer than half an hour is good. I’d say about an hour in total, then cut a piece off the lamb and try it. If it’s nice, take it out and serve it. If it’s raw, what the hell are you doing? If it’s crap, throw it away and go out for dinner.

15. Towards the last 15 minutes or so of cooking, boil some water and cook a box or twelve of fettuccine pasta. Make sure you pour some olive oil or grind some salt into the water first.

16. Once everything is done, take the shanks out of the oven and plate them, without any sauce. Then, pour the pasta into the baking tray and stir it all through the sauce. I warn you, this will look amazingly awesome.

17. Add some pasta+sauce to your place and spoon a little sauce over the top.

18. Serve with the rest of the red, if there is any, and some fresh, crusty Italian bread.

19. Enjoy, because it really is nice. And addictive. And really, really easy.

~ by araneux on July 25, 2008.