LO dudes
Yesterday I surpassed myself, and I shall share it
Purchased a Lamb Shank, a leg cut, bone througout, much cheaper than your normal piece of lamb. Good for two people, with roasties, yorkshires and veg.
Take a heavy pan that can go in the oven or on the hob (an enamel iron casserole dish kind thing)
Put large lump of butter in, melt it and then fry the entire shank, including the cut end, for 4-5 minutes on each side, to brown it, splashing a bit of the hot butter on the bits that dont hit the bottom of the pan.
Remove and place the lamb shank on upturned casserole lid, cos it saves washing up a plate.
Chop a carrot coarsely and fry in the butter.
Once carrot is soft....you can see the bottom of the pan is darkened from lamb fat and hot fat......pour in massive glas of red wine and on a high heat, use a wooden spoon to degalze those flavours off the bottom of the pan, with the carrots still in there. Put the lamb shank back in, ontop of the carrots and then put in half a pint of chicken stock (NOT BEEF..too strong) Use half a stock cube to make this half pint.
Put lid on, and cook for 1 1/2 hours at about 180 Gas Mk 5-6 ish.
Sort out stuff like roast potatos and vegetalbe (I'll let you suss the timings on these)
Regularly take out casserole dish, and turn the lamb shank...it'll start to pull away from the bone, and plump up at one end.
After 1 1/2 hours, take lamb shank out, put all the stock, with the carrots in a blender. Get it all out of that pan.
Put lamb shank back in that hot casserole dish, put lid back on and let it stand, with no heat. This will sit happily for half an hour while you sort the vegetables out to serve with it. Roast spuds should be nearly done soon I guess. Maybe whack a few Yorkshires in the oven for half an hour
Blend that stock...blitz it. It makes the most uber gravy. If it's too thick add a tad boiling water...but dont go too thin...this is awesome gravy. It's stock, red wine, and carrots....divine.
Then when you're ready to serve, carve the leg meat off, remembering this is rich meat, so a cheap shank should do two people, and then pour that gravy over the whole shebang....yorkshires, roasties....hmmmm..
was a very good gravy indeed.