Slow Cooking

I know, I know; slow cooking is generally associated with cold, wet and windy evenings in winter, where all you want to eat is beautiful hot meals that warm you up from the inside. I've never really been into slow cooking; I like dishes with a lot of preparation and detail. I like it when I can see the food I cook taking on its final form before my eyes.

There is definitely something to be said for slow cooked meals, though, as they require reasonably little preparation, and while they are cooking you can go and seek out a nice spot in front of the heater, or a window with some sun shining through, and have a cup of tea and maybe read a good book. They also require the less expensive cuts of meat, such as gravy beef, chuck steak, osso bucco, and my favourite, lamb shanks.

Despite the lovely weather Melbourne has been having intermittently over the last couple of weeks, the next few days are predicted to be cool and rainy: the perfect time, I thought, to try my hand at a slow cooked dish.

 

Slow Cooked Lamb Shank

Serves 1

Note: If you would like to cook this dish for more people, simply add one shank per person. You may need to add more stock, but I feel the quantities listed could easily feed two or three people.

Ingredients:

1 lamb shank, French trimmed*

1 400g tin diced tomatoes

1 brown onion, sliced thinly

2 potatoes, peeled, cut into chunks

1 large carrot, peeled, cut into chunks**

1-2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

250ml (1 cup) beef stock

dash of red wine

plain flour

ground cumin

ground coriander seeds

salt

pepper

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C. Sprinkle a couple of spoonfuls of plain flour on a plate. Season with salt, pepper, cumin and coriander seeds. Place lamb shank on the flour and coat evenly. Heat a little olive oil in a flameproof casserole dish (or a saucepan, if, like me, you are unsure your casserole dish is flameproof: especially if it does not belong to you). Cook the lamb shank until it is browned all over. Remove and set aside.

Add onions and garlic to the casserole dish or saucepan and cook until soft. Add a splash of red wine and stir to remove any bits stuck to the bottom. Don't worry if there are: this is a good thing!

Arrange lamb shank, onion mix and other vegetables in the casserole dish. Add tomatoes and beef stock. Season with more cumin, coriander, salt and pepper and stir gently to distribute them. Cover with the lid, or, if you are lacking a lid, with baking paper, and bake for 1.5 - 2 hours, until lamb is tender and falling off the bone. Hint: you may end up having the entire cut of meat fall off the bone in one piece. Bet you can't tell that happened from the photo! You can either sneakily place the meat back on top of the bone, as I did, or just serve it without the bone.

Serve with some cous cous (as I did) or pasta: I believe risoni pasta would go nicely.

* The only difference between a normal lamb shank and a French trimmed lamb shank is that the latter looks nicer. Most supermarkets will sell both, or you can ask your butcher to French trim them for you.

** Feel free to use more vegetables such as parsnip, turnip, swede or sweet potato. I was merely using what I had in my kitchen!