slow braised lamb shanks

rating:

Ingredients:

4 lamb shanks
2 medium sized onions, roughly chopped
2 sticks celery, roughly chopped
2 large carrots, roughly chopped
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 sprig rosemary
2-3 bay leaves
A glass of decent red wine
500ml vegetable stock

Preheat the oven to 120 degrees C.

Heat some oil in a decent sized casserole dish (large enough to hold 4 lamb shanks) and then add the onions, celery, carrots and garlic. The idea here is to lightly caramelise the vegetables. At the same time take a large frying pan and sear/brown the lamb shanks. Add the shanks to the casserole dish and deglase the frying pan with the red wine. Simmer down the glaze to about 50%. Add this and the herbs to the rest of the ingredients and season with salt and pepper. Finally add the stock- The stock should at least half cover the shanks, if it doesn't just add a little extra water. Cover with lid and put into the oven for at least 3 hours.

The shanks are ready when the meat starts to fall from the bone- Tasting is also a good check, they should be soft and succulent.

Pour the gravy out of the casserole dish into a saucepan and simmer on a low heat to thicken it up. In the meantime let the shanks rest still in the covered casserole dish for about half an hour. At this point the gravy should have reduced into an intensely flavoured jus- Spoon this over the shanks as you are serving them.