Braised Lamb Shanks

Lamb for Easter?  Why, yes thank you!  I happen to have a rather large box of lamb in my freezer.

I was on twitter on Saturday and saw Julie Van Rosendaal tweet about how many hits her lamb recipes were getting this weekend - so of course I join the masses and check out her lamb recipes.
This one was the winner!

Braised Lamb Shanks

2 lamb shanks

Salt & pepper
Olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
4 cloves, garlic, roughly chopped
1 small can tomato paste
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 bay leaf
1 ½ cups red wine
¼ cup red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
2 ½ cups beef stock

This recipe works best in a large braising pot (Le Creuset or Staub), but any heavy bottomed pot that can also go into the oven works great.

Preheat the oven to 325 F convection.

Generously sprinkle salt and pepper over the lamb shanks.
Heat oil in pot over medium-high heat.
Add the shanks and cook a few minutes on all sides to brown.  Remove meat from the pot, set aside.
Add onion, celery and carrots to the pot.  Sauté until soft, stirring often, about 10 minutes.
Add the garlic, tomato paste, rosemary and bay leaf, cook for another 2-3 minutes.
Add the wine, red wine vinegar and sugar.  Bring to a boil, and then add the beef stock.  Return to a boil again and taste.  Add salt and pepper if necessary, and then add the lamb shanks back to the pot.
Cover with lid and place in oven.  Cook for 2-3 hours until the meat is tender and falling away from the bone.
Make sure to turn the meat every half hour since it most likely will not be completely submerged in sauce.

 Cooking time depends on how big your shanks are, mine were pretty small so it took only about 2 hours to cook.

Once your lamb is done, you can remove the shanks from the pot and then use an immersion blender to puree the sauce if you want a smoother sauce; I left mine chunky. 

Serve with rice or mashed potatoes.

Enjoy!

Source: adapted from Dinner with Julie.