Tomatoe and Chutney Lamb-Shanks – 17/08/2008

Well spring is almost upon the Southern Hemisphere and while it’s still cold I tend to want to again look at the old favourite Lamb-Shanks. This is a cheap cut that is often overlooked, but when prepared and cooked slowly is the most rewarding and healthy meal you can have.

Ingredients:

4 Lamb-Shanks (about 2 Kilograms/4 pounds)

350 – 370 grams/12oz of chutney usually 1 small jar

1 tin of premium tomatoes 440 grams/15oz or 3-4 fresh if you have them

Season to taste

Mash: Butter, cream

Optional:

Chilli oil 1 tsp

Sweet Chilli sauce 1 tsp

crushed garlic 1 – 2 cloves

3 – 4 medium potatoes

1 medium sweet potatoe

peas either frozen or fresh to choice, alternately spinach can be used

How to do it:

Well this is really quite easy to prepare and cook, first I went to my local butcher and picked up 4 reasonable lamb-shanks (about 1.8 KG). Upon getting them back to the kitchen remove all the excess fat if any, I did cheat and the butcher did this for me, you don’t know if you don’t ask. I rummaged in the cupboard and found a jar of chutney (tomatoe and onion) that I picked up a couple of weeks ago at a market and 1 tin of Latina Roma tomatoes. Now the marinate, ooh this is a family secret, well OK it’s not all I did was combine the tomatoes and chutney into a bowl. Tasted and seasoned with a little sea salt and pepper also added some mustard seeds and a little chilli oil (Oil with bruised and whole chillies for flavour).

Now the hard bit add the lamb-shanks and ensure you apply a good cover of the marinate over them, remove from bowl onto a waiting sheet of cling-wrap, pour over excess marinate and roll up to seal in the marinate. Place in the refrigerator overnight (or if you are impatient for 4 hours) 

The next thing is preheat your oven to 180 C (350 F) add a heavy based pan with a little oil or lard until oven reaches temp. While you are waiting peel the potatoes and cut into reasonable sized pieces (this is really personal choice). Once the baking pan has reached the temperature light a large burner on your stove top and place the dish on, add the lamb-shanks gently and allow to brown, rotate to get an even colour.

Once you have a good golden colour add the potatoes and turn them until covered in oil, immediately place the baking dish back into the oven for 20 minutes.

After the twenty minutes remove the dish and turn the shanks and potatoes, return to the oven for another 2 1/2 hours at a reduced temperature of 120 C (250 F) do not get tempted to open the door it is really important to let this slow cook happen undisturbed.

While this is going on you can start to prepare your sweet potatoe and greens, get the boiling water on the go, so when the meat has about 15 – 20 minutes put on the sweet potatoe and greens.

Give your plates a warm and once the meet is ready let it rest for about 5 minutes in the tray covered with a tea-towel. A good trick is to place kitchen tongs under 1 side and move the meat and potatoes up to allow excess oil and fat to drain.

Now plate up, I chose to put a bed of sweet potatoe on the plate and rest the lamb-shank on top, side of backed potatoes and greens serve and enjoy.

I found a crisp chardonnay was a good choice with this dinner. And you guessed it theres no left overs.

This is Low Gi and great comfort food, the meat is tender and sweet and the accompanying vegetables provide good roughage and vitamins.

Tags: Cooking, easy, fat, healthy, kitchen, Lamb Shanks, Lambshank, Low Gi, oil, pepper, potatoes, recipe, Recipes, salt, Spinach, sweet, tomatoe

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