Perfect Slow Cooked Lamb Shanks

If I must say so myself, this recipe is one of the best, if not the best recipes on this channel. These lamb shanks completely fall off the bone, melt in your mouth and the flavors are unbeatable. Please sit back, relax, and enjoy. All right guys, starting this off, remove the tip and root from one brown or yellow onion to then slice it in half, peel off the skin, and of course, save the scraps for a stock. Then slice the onion in half again, rotate it 90 degrees, and give it a rough chop into medium-sized pieces. Next, grab two medium-sized carrots, slicing off both the top and the bottom, saving the scraps for a stock, and then just like the onion, give the carrots a good old rough chop into even-sized pieces. Let's then do the same again with one rib of celery, and to be honest, I personally don't like celery on its own, but for dishes like this, it adds fantastic flavor, so I do recommend using it, even if you're not a fan. With three small to medium-sized kestrel potatoes, slice them in half, then into quarters, rotate 90 degrees, and slice into even-sized chunks, trying your best to do so for even cooking times. Next, we're going to need four cloves of peeled and fresh garlic, to which we can place on our chopping board, and using the side of our knife with the blade away from us and facing down, push down to crush and activate the allicin compound, which is what gives garlic its strong, pungent flavor. Here is 7 grams or 0.25 ounces of fresh thyme, to which we can give a rough chop, but make sure there's no large woody stems, because if there is, you will need to separate the leaves, as we don't want to have a stem stabbing into our mouth once this is all finished. Now, for a side dish, I'm using 200 grams or 7 ounces of snake beans, which are literally just a really long green bean, and don't hesitate to use regular green beans, if you can't get hold of snake beans. With these being so big, I'm going to slice them in half, so they'll fit in my pan, but if you are using green beans, you won't need to slice them up, but you will have to remove the stem, as they can be a bit woody. Now, last but not least, we're obviously going to need some lamb shanks, and these four right here have a combined weight of 1.6 kilos or 3.5 pounds. Okay, to get the magic happening, place a large pot onto your stovetop over a high heat, and once hot, pour in 2 tablespoons or 40 millilitres of olive oil. Let's then gently place in the lamb shanks, doing these in batches, depending on the size of your pot. Hit them up with a sprinkle of sea salt flakes, then sear until golden all over, moving around regularly. This initial sear is going to help lock in all of the flavours, whilst the meat is braising, which will give us a better, more flavourful end product. Once golden, try to get a grip on these slippery things, being careful they don't shank you, and place them onto a plate to rest for the time being, searing the other two, if you are doing this in batches. Now, into the same hot pot, add in the roughly chopped onions, the roughly chopped celery rib, which I highly recommend using, and the roughly chopped carrots. Then with this now, give it a really good mix around, so that the veggies can pick up all of the flavour left behind from the lamb, and whilst mixing regularly, saute for two minutes. Next, add in the roughly chopped kestrel potatoes, the lightly crushed whole garlic cloves, as well as a small pinch of sea salt flakes, and continue sauteing for another two minutes, to allow the garlic to introduce itself to the other ingredients. Also, we don't want to saute this for too long, to the point that the veggies are soft, because if we did, we'll end up with a mash at the end of it all, and all we're doing now is heating it up, and allowing everything to release its flavour. Once that's done, let's introduce two tablespoons, or 60 grams of tomato paste, to give this a beautiful depth of flavour. 500 millilitres, or two cups of cheap red wine, which can be substituted for vegetable or chicken stock, if you can't consume alcohol. One litre, or four cups of chicken or vegetable stock, with chicken being the best preference. Two tablespoons, or 19 grams of whole cumin seeds, to add a warm earthy flavour. One and a half tablespoons, or 14 grams of whole fennel seeds, to give us a sweetish aniseed-like flavour and fragrance. Three fresh or dried bay leaves, for a subtle peppery and piney flavour. Two sprigs of fresh or dried rosemary, because what's lamb without rosemary? One and a half tablespoons, or two grams of dried oregano, for a bold earthy flavour and slight bitterness. And the fresh thyme we prepared earlier, for a slight minty and lemony fresh flavour. Season to taste with one teaspoon, or five grams of sea salt flakes, and two teaspoons, or 20 cracks of black pepper, remembering that seasoning is always to what you like. Then give this a big mix around to break up the tomato paste, and of course, for those flavours to become friends. Once mixed through, we can then reintroduce the seared lamb shanks, and with these, we want to get them covered in all of the liquid as much as possible, so strategically place them in as best as you can. Without the need of this boiling or simmering, place a lid or aluminium foil if you don't have one, then this can be transferred over to a preheated oven, set to 180 degrees Celsius, or 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and allow it to braise for three and a half hours, and there's no need to mix or stir throughout. All right, so three and a half hours later, we can then very carefully remove it from the oven, placing it onto a heat-resistant surface or wire rack, then using a mitt to remove the lid, being careful of all of that escaping steam, which then leaves us with this amazingly delicate and delicious lamb with a fantastic flavoursome sauce. Now to make this go from good to one of the best things that you've ever tasted, strain the braising liquid through a sieve into a smaller saucepan or pot, trying your best to not tip the ingredients out, especially the lamb shanks, otherwise you'll have a very messy scenario on your hands, as well as shanks that look like they've been shanked themselves. Also, it's okay to leave a small amount of the braising liquid in the original pot. Once that's done, give the sieve a shake to remove the excess liquid, and with whatever was caught in the sieve, it can be placed back into the pot with the lamb shanks. Also during this next step, I recommend placing the lid back on the pot to keep the lamb nice and hot. Now with the sauce, make your way back over to the stovetop, placing it onto a high heat, and then bring the sauce to a boil. Once boiling, allow it to do so for 25 to 30 minutes or until it's reduced by two thirds and is looking nice and thick with three Cs. This sauce right here is easily up there with some of the best in the world, and I can't wait to hear your thoughts on it once you've tried it yourself. In the meantime, place a large pan over a high heat, add in the half snake beans or green beans, whichever one you chose to use, then add in two tablespoons or 40 milliliters of hot water to soften these up and allow them to shallow steam in the pan for two minutes or until the water has evaporated. Also during this stage, season them with half a teaspoon or 2.5 grams of sea salt flakes and one teaspoon or 10 cracks of black pepper, moving them around regularly. Two minutes later, add in one tablespoon or 14 grams of clarified butter, mixing it through to allow it to melt and saute for a further one minute to get that nice buttery flavor all over the beans, and once it's all done and has become nice and limp, the pan can then be removed. Going back to the lamb sauce that has now reduced by two thirds and is looking nice and thick, this can also be removed from the stovetop. Now for the best part, we can place down the delicious buttery beans and spoon over a small amount of that delicious lamb sauce. Place down the mixed braised vegetables on top of the beans, creating a nice little nest in the middle, then with that nest, tuck in the amazingly soft lamb shank. Finish this off with more of that amazing and rich lamb sauce, adding as much or as little as you'd like, trying to resist using it all, saving some for your family and friends, and in the part to make this all worthwhile, we can then literally flake the soft lamb off of the bone and finally we can then dig in. So there we have it, this recipe right here serves two, four or six people depending on the size of your portions and like most of my recipes, it can easily be double, tripled or so on or halved if you wanted to make less. To store it, you can place it in the fridge in an airtight container for up to four days or in the freezer in an airtight container for up to three months and to reheat it, you can place it back in a pan over a medium high heat, you can add the sauce in there too and just heat it up till it's nice and hot or you can do it in the microwave, just do whatever's easiest for you. If you enjoyed this video, be sure to smash that like button, comment, share, do all of that stuff, it really does help my channel out and consider subscribing along with hitting that bell notification next to it so you never miss when I upload. Thanks for watching everyone, stay safe and enjoy.