Lamb shanks

Yuk yuk yuk – the weather is grim! So far today we have had rain, hail and snow, all coming horizontally because of all the wind! Is it not supposed to be getting warmer and more spring-like yet!?

All this cold makes me want to eat hearty and comforting meals, and to be curled up on the sofa with slippers and a big mug of tea! These delicious lamb shanks were certainly hearty – tick, and I am now on the sofa with slippers and tea – double tick!

I used this recipe from the BBC Good Food site as inspiration and just tweaked it slightly by using dried rosemary instead of fresh, and by adding a little bit of beef stock so that the sauce covered more of the shanks as they were starting to cook.  We ate these with mashed potatoes instead of the suggested crushed and herbed ones, and a few steamed veggies.

This was a brilliant recipe, and the sauce was really rich and tasty thanks to the red wine and balsamic vinegar. The meat is melt-in-the-mouth delicious and just fell off the bone. This would usually be one to make on a weekend as the shanks need a fair bit of cooking time, or to prepare and do most of the cooking one evening and then eat the next like we did.