Cooked low and slow for seven hours, this tender lamb meat is served with a rich sauce from cooking with a crusty bread and some vegetables. A perfect meal for a cold day.
By Eva Lambooij
This is what I like to call the Seven Hour Lamb Stew. I hope that won’t scare you off. I mean, 7 hours of cooking can sound frightening! Let me reassure you, you won’t be working for 7 hours. You can more or less forget about the stew, and let the stove or oven do all the work for you!
This is classic French food and after I tasted it in a restaurant one evening, I knew I had to reproduce this at home. Like all stews, the meat becomes wonderfully tender and soft after a such a long time of slow cooking. And in this special case I love how the shanks look after 7 hours of stewing, and the way the meat just falls of the bone. I like to serve it with mashed potatoes or crusty bread, but it goes very well with rice as well.
PrintSlow Cooked Lamb Shank
Cooked low and slow for seven hours, this tender lamb meat is served with a rich sauce from cooking with a crusty bread and some vegetables. A perfect meal for a cold day.
- Yield: 3 to 4 servings
- Category: Main
- Cuisine: French
Ingredients
- Lamb shanks, 1 kg (35 oz), at room temperature
- Salt & pepper
- Butter, ½ tbsp
- Shallot, 1, chopped
- Garlic, 1 clove, chopped
- Veal stock, 600 ml (2 + ½ cup)
- Bay leaves, 3
- Thyme, 3 sprigs
- Fresh peppercorns, 1 tsp
- White wine, splash
- Optional: cubed carrot and sliced champignons
Instructions
- Take a big pan, suitable for stews (there will be a lot in the pan by the time you’re done)
- Heat the butter and season the meat
- Brown the meat, on all sides
- Lower the heat, add the shallot and garlic, and bake for 1-2 minutes
- Add the veal stock, the herbs and pepper corns and let simmer (don’t boil!) for 6-7 hours, until the meat falls of the bone
- If you wish to add some vegetables, you can add the carrots and champignons about 15 minutes before the meat is done
- Turn the heat up and let it reduce until you have a thick sauce (stay near the stove at this point, or you’ll risk burning the stew)
