Lamb’s bold flavor works in so many different dishes. The key is accentuating and highlighting it while keeping things simple. Cultures around the world have their take on traditional lamb stew as well as chops, shanks and ground lamb.
Here’s a go-to recipe from our General Manager, Chris Maher, from Nagi Maehashi of Recipe Tin Eats.
Ingredients
- 4 lamb shanks, around 13 oz each
- 1 tsp EACH cooking/kosher salt and pepper
- 2 – 3 Tbsp olive oil, divided
- 1 onion, finely diced (brown, yellow or white)
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 cup carrot, peeled, finely diced
- 1 cup celery, finely diced
- 2 ½ cups red wine (full bodied good value wine, not expensive!)
- 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
- 2 Tbsp tomato paste
- 2 cups chicken stock, low sodium (or water)
- 5 sprigs of thyme (preferably tied together), or 2 tsp dried thyme
- 2 dried bay leaves (or 4 fresh)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Pat lamb with paper towel to dry, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Heat 2 Tbsp oil on high heat in a large oven-safe pot on the stove. Get it hot before adding meat.
- Sear lamb until brown on all sides – about 3-5 minutes each side. Set aside. Lower heat to medium and wait a moment. Add remaining olive oil. Add diced onion and garlic. Stir.
- Cook for 5 minutes. Add seasonings. Add carrot and celery. Cook 5 minutes more until carrot begins to soften.
- Add red wine and scrape any brown bits from the sauce pan up with the liquid. MMMM Tasty stuff!
- Add stock, paste and tomatoes. Stir until heated through. Add shanks back to the pot.
- Cover the pot and transfer to preheated oven for 2 ½ hours. Remove pot from oven. Take lamb out and set aside.
- Strain veggies out of the sauce into a bowl. (Reserve veggies for other tasty things like pasta.)
- Put strained sauce on the stove back in the pot and cook for 10 minutes more over medium high heat to reduce and thicken. Taste, add salt if needed.
- Serve shanks on a grain or potatoes, covered with sauce. Peas are good too.