Slow Cooked Lamb Shanks in Red Wine Sauce

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F (all oven types - fan and standard).
• Season shanks - Pat the lamb shanks dry and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
• Brown - Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large heavy based pot over high heat. Sear the lamb shanks in 2 batches until brown all over, about 5 minutes. Remove lamb onto a plate and drain excess fat (if any) from the pot.
• Sauté aromatics - Turn the heat down to medium low. Heat remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil in the same pot. Add the onion and garlic, cook for 2 minutes. Add carrot and celery. Cook for 5 minutes until onion is translucent and sweet.
• Braising liquid - Add the red wine, chicken stock, crushed tomato, tomato paste, thyme and bay leaves. Stir to combine.
• Add shanks - Place the lamb shanks into the pot, squeezing them in to fit so they are mostly submerged.
• Oven 2 hours covered - Turn stove up, bring liquid to a simmer. Cover, then transfer to the oven for 2 hours.
• Uncovered 30 minutes - Remove lid, then return to the oven for another 30 minutes (so 2 1/2 hours in total). Check to ensure lamb meat is ultra tender - if not, cover and keep cooking. Ideal is tender meat but still just holding onto bone.
• Remove lamb onto plate and keep warm. Pick out and discard bay leaves and thyme.
• Sauce - Strain the sauce into a bowl, pressing to extract all sauce out of the veggies. Pour strained sauce back into pot. If needed, bring to a simmer over medium heat and reduce slightly to a syrupy consistency - I rarely need to. Taste then add salt and pepper to taste.
• Serve the lamb shanks on mashed potato or cauliflower puree with plenty of sauce! Garnish with thyme leaves if desired.