Crock Pot Lamb Shanks

Peter J's Note:

Modified version of a recipe I found on the 'net that I thought turned out great. Apart from a few small changes to seasoning the original recipe called for a cup of wine rather than beer, sometimes I feel with tomato that makes things a bit rich when slow-cooked and I thought the beer substitution worked well. If you don't want to use beer try a cup of beef stock instead of the stock powder / beer. Also whole garlic cooked this way doesn't taste strong at all, if you want it to have a strong garlic taste you'd need to crush some of it.

• Total Time: 8 hrs 20 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 8 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 2

• 1 kg lamb shank (4 medium shanks)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 medium brown onions , sliced
• 12 garlic cloves , peeled
• 200 g mushrooms , coarsely sliced
• 1 cup beer
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons beef stock powder
• 400 g crushed tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf , broken into quarters

Directions:

1. Heat oil in pan over medium to high heat and brown lamb shanks on all sides.
2. Season lamb shanks with pepper.
3. Place sliced onions at bottom of crock pot and put lamb shanks on top drizzled with remaining oil and juices from the pan.
4. Place mushrooms and garlic cloves over the top.
5. Mix beer, Worcestershire sauce, stock powder, tomatoes, oregano, basil, thyme and bay leaf in a bowl.
6. Pour mixture over the top of lamb shanks.
7. Cook in crock pot on low for 6-8 hours depending on your crock pot.
8. Remove bay leaves.
9. Serve with vegetables and juices poured over the top of the shanks. I served over wholegrain bread but mashed potatoes would be the best match.

Reviews

[Chickee]

This was a very good recipe for lamb shanks, I like the idea of not using red wine. My lamb shanks were huge, 2kg. I wondered how this would affect the sauce but there was plenty. Loved the whole garlic cloves! The only thing lacking was some seasoning, I added some salt at the end and some more pepper. Thanks!

[trasarra]

Very hearty, but the lamb flavor was overpowered by the many strongly flavored ingredients.

[tolst]

Delicious. I made the recipe without the mushrooms and using a cup of Yuengling lager. The can of crushed tomatoes already had basil seasoning so I left that out. I was a little afraid that the thyme and oregano would be too overpowering but it was fine. My husband declared that with this dish in our repertoire it is goodbye to the Greek restaurant and its lamb shank and even my teenage children who are frequently suspicious of meaty dishes gobbled up the lamb and mash without any protests. Next day I used the left over sauce as the basis for a minestrone soup. Also yum! Thanks so much for a winner!