Italian Style Lamb Shanks

"This is our favourite recipe for lamb shanks. Good enough for guests and just glorious on a cold, winter's night served with rice, cous cous or creamy mashed potatoes."
 
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Ready In:
3hrs 30mins
Ingredients:
15
Serves:
4
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ingredients

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directions

  • First, you need to roast the capsicums (bell peppers).
  • Preheat the oven to 200C (400F) or, alternatively, set grill (broiler) to high temperature.
  • Slice capsicums into quarters lengthwise and remove stem, seeds and membrane.
  • Coat well with olive oil and place into a roasting tin, skin side up.
  • Cook in a hot (200°C) oven or under a hot grill until the skin begins to blacken and bubble.
  • Remove and place capsicum pieces into a plastic bag.
  • Seal bag and set aside until capsicums are cool.
  • When cool, open bag and remove as much peel as possible from capsicums and set aside until needed.
  • *Ifthis sounds like too much trouble, you could substitute a bottle (210g approx) of roasted capsicums (drained).
  • TO PREPARE THE LAMB SHANKS: Preheat oven to moderate 180C (350F).
  • In a large jug, combine beef stock powder, garlic powder, soup mix, red wine, and hot water, mix well.
  • Add entire (undrained) contents of the can of peeled tomatoes to the jug, and set aside until needed.
  • Heat oil in a large frypan (preferably an ovenproof frypan) or in a dutch oven or similar.
  • Add lamb shanks, turn to cover well with oil, then cook on a high heat until brown all over.
  • Remove lamb shanks from the pan and set aside.
  • Reduce heat in pan, pour off all but 1 tablespoon of oil, and add onion, garlic, thyme and tomato paste.
  • Cook for 3-5 minutes, or until fragrant.
  • Now pour the contents of the jug into the pan and stir to mix well.
  • Add lamb shanks to the pan, turning to coat well with the sauce.
  • Increase heat and bring liquid to the boil.
  • When liquid is boiling, cover the pan and transfer it (if ovenproof) to the centre shelf of the pre-heated oven.
  • *Ifyour pan is not ovenproof, simply tip the shanks and their sauce into a suitable dish before transferring to the oven.
  • Cook shanks, covered, in the oven for 2 hours at 180C (350F).
  • After 2 hours, add the capsicums.
  • Cover and cook for a further 30 minutes.
  • Skim any excess fat from the top of the sauce before serving.
  • Before serving, add freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste.
  • Serve with steamed rice, cous cous, or mashed potatoes.

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Reviews

  1. An excellent recipe thanks Kooka. I was worried about it being overly salty (soup mix and stock powder) but it wasn't. I opted for the easy out and used the jarred roasted capsicums (worked wonderfully) and next time I make this I'd add a handful of pitted black olives and chopped parsley to finish. Our shanks were meltingly tender and we ate this over horseradish mashe dpotatoes.
     
  2. Fabulous recipe, can't wait to make this one again. The meat was falling of the bone it was that tender. I browned the meat first, then put everything in my crockpot for about 8 hours on low, turned out great.
     
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

<p>Above: Slideshow of our garden at Avalon Slideshow of our recent holiday at Woodgate Beach, South-East Queensland, Australia. Hi! I'm Kookaburra, from Australia. First, a promise. I will only post recipes on this site which I've made myself and to which I would personally give a 5 star rating - what you give them is up to you ;-) I look forward to receiving your feedback. If you look at my reviews, they're all 5 stars. That doesn't mean I give 5 stars to every recipe I try. I'm just not interested in giving poor ratings to anyone else's recipe because I accept that different people have different tastes. So, I've decided that I'll only review those recipes which I really love and which I'd make again and recommend to friends. If a recipe meets that criteria - even if it needs a bit of 'tweaking' to match my tastes, I'll give it 5 stars. If not, I'll just delete it from my recipe book and no hard feelings. I'm not advocating this as the 'right' approach. I just decided I needed a consistent strategy for rating and this is mine. I'm passionate about cooking - and eating! What I look for in food is something that 'zings' in the mouth. I like lots of taste - I'm not a big fan of subtlety. I don't often cook recipes exactly as written. I like to experiment and adapt things to my own taste. A retired marketing executive and academic, I live with my elderly (but thoroughly modern) mother in a tiny mountain village at the edge of the rainforest. I'm female, happily single, in my mid-40s and boast the Rubenesque figure of a passionate cook! Avalon, our 'story-book' cottage, overlooks a small lake. As I sit at my computer or work in the kitchen, I'm serenaded by a cacophany of native birds - including a very fat family of kookaburras! We have quite a large property and are lucky to have vegetable gardens and a variety of fruit and nut trees. I look forward to sharing recipes on Recipezaar with family, friends and friends I've yet to meet. last minute flight</p>
 
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