Classic Lamb Shanks

Prep Time:

15 minutes

Cook Time:

3 hours and 20 minutes

Hearty winter food at its best! Lamb shanks, slow cooked with seasonal vegetables and red wine until the meat falls off the bone.

Ingredients(4-6 depending on number of shanks)

• 30 ml olive oil
• 4-6 lamb shanks  (1.1-1.6 kg total) – 1 per person
• ½ head garlic – cut the head across the centre so the exposed cloves are visible
• 600 g pkt  SPAR Freshline Chunky Veg Soup vegetable mix
• ½ a sachet SPAR tomato paste (60 g)
• 500 ml SPAR chicken stock
• 350 ml red wine
• 4 SPAR bay leaves
• 1 stalk fresh rosemary
• 1  SPAR Cinnamon Quill

Method

1. Turn oven to 160° C.
2. Season shanks well and seal them off in a little oil in a large pot, until golden brown all over.  Transfer them into a deep roasting tin, including the garlic.
3. In the same pot sauté the vegetable mix in the heated oil until tender and the spinach as wilted and reduced considerably.  Add tomato paste, hot stock and wine. Bring to a boil. Pour this sauce over the shanks, cover with tin foil or casserole lid, and place in the pre-heated oven. Cook for three hours until the meat is soft and almost falls off the bone.
4. Remove from the oven and move shanks from pan to a serving dish. Strain the sauce ingredients over a pot and cook the resulting strained liquid briskly to reduce to a thin jus.

Hints and Tips

Serve on a base of heated then roughly mashed, canned SPAR borlotti or Cannellini beans and a spicy tomato relish.