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I was thinking about things I could cook for dinner and Lamb Shanks came to mind. My dads friend Gilby Samassa used to make a killer lamb shank. He used to grill them in a pizza oven which, unfortunately, I didn’t own So I checked some recipes online. I couldn’t find one I liked but I got the general idea of what’s involved in the cooking process: Create bed of flavour, add liquid, simmer for 2-3 hours. Everything else is just a variation on that framework.

Mine is: Lamb Shanks in port/red wine with rosemary/thyme served on a bed of mash.

First job is to get some nice fat lamb shanks from your local supermarket or butcher. It’s usually 1 shank per person but if you’re a big eater go for 2. Have the size of your biggest pot in mind though Ingredients you’ll need are:

• The Lamb Shanks
• A big pot
• Olive oil
• Butter - 2 tablespoons
• Cornflower (Mazena) - 2 teaspoons
• Flour - 2 tablespoons
• Cheap/cooking Port - 250ml
• Cheapish Red Wine - 100ml
• Chicken Stock (home made first prize, otherwise cubes will do) - 250ml
• Fresh Rosemary - 2 sprigs
• Fresh Thyme - few pieces
• Clove of Garlic - 8 pieces
• Green peppercorns
• Carrot - 1x
• Leek - 1x
• Large Red Onion (or white if no red) - 1x
• Cloves - 5 or 6 small ones
• Wooden spoon
• Sieve

This recipe doesn’t include the mash, for that you’ll have to search elsewhere.

Take the shanks out of the fridge about 20 minutes prior to cooking. Take a standard sized plate and spoon 2 table spoons of flour onto it. Grind some salt and pepper into this flour. Add a shake of: Cayenne Pepper, BBQ Spice and whatever else you feel like (your own Col Sanders recipe..). Mix the flour/spice mix with a fork and then take each Lamb Shank and coat the outside with this mixture. Make sure that every side of the shank is coated with flour. Chop your carrot, leek and red onion. Peel 5 pieces of garlic from the clove. Have your stock, port and wine ready.

Put the pot on the stove on full power and add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pot. Add a tablespoon of butter to the oil. When the mixture is bubbling, add the shanks. Brown the shanks by turning them on all sides for a couple of minutes. Once browned, take them out an put them on a plate nearby. Now throw your onions and garlic pieces into the same oil and stir for about 3-4 minutes. Then add the carrots and leeks. Finally after 6 minutes or so, add the rosemary sprigs, thyme and then pour in a dash of red wine and stir quickly. This should get all these flavours talking to one another.

After a few seconds, add the chicken stock, port and rest of the red wine to the pot. Turn the power down to 1 or low. Grind a fair amount of salt and pepper into the pot and then throw in about 10-15 green peppercorns (to taste) and then add the cloves. Stir the mixture quite a bit and then add the lamb shanks to the pot. They should be 3/4 submerged in the pot. Glance at the time. Put the lid on the pot and then all your need to do from now on is check on it every 35 minutes or so. When you check on it, turn the shanks over so they cook evenly - give the mixture a stir too. Towards the 2 hour mark, be careful turning the shanks, make sure you don’t break them apart.

Towards the 2 hour mark, start making your potato mash. Jackie makes a killer mash but I don’t know the recipe. As you near the 2.5 hour mark, it becomes more of a gut feel thing. Use a wooden spoon to check how soft your shanks are, if they are falling off the bone they are ready, otherwise leave them in until they are really soft. Between 2.5 - 3 hours is where I usually take them out. So once you’ve taken them out, place them on a tray where they can retain their warmth, NOT in the oven.

It’s now time for the sauce.  Give the sauce in the pot a good stir. Get out a standard sized pan and put it on full heat on the stove. You now need to pour the sauce from the pot into the pan, but you’ll have to use your discretion as to how much. You don’t want 1 Litre of sauce so if it’s just 2 of you, pour about 500ml. You must sieve this sauce before it hits the pan though as there are loads of herbs, cloves, spices, carrots etc which u dont want in your sauce. So now you have the strained sauce mixture in your pan which is on full heat. I use the wooden spoon in the sieve to squeeze the last of the flavours into the pan. At this point I take the garlic pieces which have been cooking for almost 3 hours now and then squeeze those into the pan. Now all you do is stir the sauce in the pan and let it reduce for about 10 - 15 minutes. After it has reduced a bit, mix the cornflower with a little bit of water in a glass and then add it to the sauce. Keep stiring and the sauce should start to thicken.

Now all you do is put some mash on the plate, load on the shank and then spoon over the sauce from the pan. The shank should be really, really soft and delicious and the sauce should be full of all that flavour it’s cooked in. Yum.