Braised Lamb Shanks

This is a really easy lamb recipe to make, especially if you are not very familiar with making lamb. It’s very similar to pot-roast in preparation, the oven does all the work for you. A lamb shank is the lower part of the leg, and is very tough, but after braising for a couple hours becomes delicious and tender. I have had lamb shanks at restaurants many times and thought it would be fun to make them for dinner this week, and they turned out great. I just used a basic recipe of red wine, broth and some veggies for the braising liquid. I served mine over a bed of my delicious mashed potatoes with oven roasted asparagus.

Braised Lamb Shanks

4 Lamb Shanks
Salt & Pepper
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 Small Yellow Onions, or 1 Large, diced
2 Stalks Celery, diced
2 Carrots, peeled and diced
2 Cups Red Wine (full bodied)
2 Cups Beef Stock
1 Tablespoon Dried Rosemary
3 Garlic Cloves, crushed
2 Bay Leaves

Season the lamb with salt and pepper. In a large dutch oven, heat the oil until just smoking and then sear the meat until golden brown on all sides, remove from the pan and set aside.
Add the onions, celery, and carrots and sauté until just tender and onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the wine and bring to a boil, scraping up all the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Next add the stock, rosemary, garlic cloves and bay leaves and bring to a simmer, place the meat back into the pan. Cover and bake at 350 degrees until meat is tender and almost falling off the bone, about 2 hours. Remove from oven and take meat out and cover to keep warm.
To make the gravy, remove the bay leaves from the liquid and puree with a stick blender, or in a regular blender. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve along side of the lamb.