I recently acquired a Chasseur French Oven and was motivated by the cold weather to make some delicious slow cooked lamb shanks.
Preparing low carb comfort food can be pretty difficult – whenever I’m feeling stressed I lean toward carby foods like turkish toast or baklava but I think lamb shanks / beans / cauliflower mash will hit the spot.
I don’t typically post food photos here but I think it’s as good a place as any. I recently replaced my 16-50 2.8 lens after I destroyed my last one in Japan and I want to get back into the habit of taking photos.
Lamb Shanks:
- 4 lamb shanks
- Olive oil
- Garlic
- Salt & Pepper – freshly ground
- 1 onion
- 1 birdseye chilli
- 10 mushrooms
- 2 cups red wine (I went with Brokenwood Cricket Pitch)
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 1 cup beef stock
- 600g whole peeled tomatoes
- Fresh rosemary – to taste
- Fresh thyme – to taste
- Lemon Rind
I opted to cut small slits into the lamb shanks and stuff them with slices of garlic. After rubbing them liberally with salt and pepper, I heated a couple of tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat in the french oven and browned the lamb shanks for two minutes on each side.
After they’d browned nicely, I let them rest in a bowl (to chill out and also to gather their wonderful juices) and fried a roughly chopped onion, a couple of cloves of diced garlic, the chilli and mushrooms for about six minutes. When the onion was translucent, I added the red wine and and stirred to remove any browned deliciousness from the pan. It reached a boil, I added the tomatoes / rosemary / thyme / both stocks and a bit of extra salt and pepper, returned it to a boil and added the lamb shanks (and all their wonderful juices).
After the delicious sauce returned to a boil, I moved the pan over to the smallest hob on the stove, and set it to low. I let the shanks hang out on low for a couple of hours before removing them to a bowl and covering them, and then letting the sauce reduce with the lid off.
I took the opportunity to make Cauliflower Mash – Mellissa is a low carb goddess and her cauliflower mash is amazing – while waiting for the sauce to reduce. It’s one of my favourite lower carb treats and it’s perfect with beans and anything saucy.