Meat Reheat Part 1 – Lower and Slower Lamb Shanks

One of the excellent things about writing this blog is that I can do what I like, unbound by convention. One standard would state that posting the same stuff twice is a no-no. To hell with that. If anyone can extract a second serving from one dish, I’m your man. One of my earliest posts was lamb shanks under the banner of How slow can you go? I now realise that I can go slower and lower, a lot slower and plenty lower. Hence, part one in my Meat Reheat series.

Lamb Shanks
There’s enough in one per person but ‘one for the pot’ never goes to waste.

For Lower and Slower Lamb Shanks, you are going to need:

• 5 lamb shanks (4 people and one to fight over)
• 1 bulb of excellent garlic
• 1 big sprig of rosemary
• 2 onions
• A bottle of red wine
• Seasoned flour for dusting
• Parsnips and potatoes to serve

You are also going to need to get up early. This is a six-hour roasting extravaganza.

Here’s what you need to do

Turn the oven on to 110 degrees C. Heat a frying pan (skillet) on the hob. Dust the shanks in the seasoned flour and brown them on as many sides as their shape will allow.

Impossible to brown them on every size unless you use a blowtorch or deep fry them. Don’t ask me to do either.

Sit them on the onion and rosemary in a roasting dish. Add plenty of garlic. You can decide on quantity. I am fed up listening to people telling me I use too much garlic. I don’t. When one slow roasts, the garlic transforms into a beautiful sweet paste inside the cloves.

This is the first of a few gratuitous meat shot. Note the garlic, onions and rosemary. The support actors in the gravy show.

Season the shanks and add three-quarters of a bottle of the wine. If it is not too early in the day for you, pour a glass and enjoy it. Cover the shanks with foil and put them in the oven.

This is the second gratuitous shot. Note the wine. The Cary Grant or Wayne Sleep in the gravy show.

Go somewhere else and do something worthwhile for a couple of hours. (I cycled down to Wicklow and back.)  Return and turn the shanks. Go away again. Repeat this process (Not the cycle unless you are very fit, I was exhausted.).

4 hours in and time to pour off most of the cooking juices. I was pretty hungry at this stage of things.

Don’t forget to prepare your other ingredients. You have plenty of time to do them. No excuses please.

A visual interlude for the vegetarians. The earthy taste of parsnips works really well. I roasted mine for half an hour with a little oil and black pepper.

After five and a half hours, take the shanks out. Pour off most of the cooking liquid into a separator.

The gravy needs to be reduced in a saucepan by about two-thirds. Then add a bit of butter to glaze the gravy. It ends up a purple-black colour and incredibly rich.

When you have removed the fat, add this to a pot and reduce it, adding a knob of butter to give it a nice glaze. This will be one of the best gravies you will ever taste. Return the shanks to the oven, uncovered, and turn the heat up to 180 C.

Diner pressure was resisted. I took the full 6 hours. Worth the wait.

Turn the shanks a couple of times during this part of the process. They should be sticky and will smell delicious. Be careful to prevent them drying out. Add back a bit of the gravy if you really need to.

That gravy was the excellent. Worth the time stirring it on the hob. Do you like my styling with the sprig of rosemary?

Get the timing of the other ingredients right and serve the shanks with mashed potatoes, wine gravy and seasonal vegetables.

“Et viola” as they say in musical circles. Note the roasted garlic cloves hiding at the back of the plate. Perfect squashed and mixed with the mash.

The first of my reheats was a big success. The flavours worked wonderfully well. It was worth going the entire six hours. I make that pretty low and pretty slow.