Saturday Dinner

Currently at home alone…I was invited to dinner with Katie and Chris.
The temptation was extra gripping.
She was making Lamb Shanks.
I saw a wonderful way to roast vegetables (inspired by Tim McRoberts
on Food TV he is a Canadian chef) and cooked them to accompany the wonderful shanks

First the vege

You will need for 4 people (there were left overs…good lunch the next day)

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 fingers potatoes per person
2 med carrots cut into 12 sticks
2 little turnip each
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 baby onions each
2 whole cloves garlic each
2 handful sliced mushrooms
3 stalks of silverbeet sliced stalks and all
3 stalks of celery chopped

Bouquet Garni
1 stalk of celery cut in half horizontally
3 sprigs thyme
3 b ay leaves

8 black olives
Juice ½ lemon
50 gms feta crumbled
Several basil leaves...torn for garnish

If your you can cook in your roasting pan on the stove top do this in one stage
I decided to spread the cooking over 2 frying pans and then transferred to a roasting dish to finish off the dish.
First put oil into a med hot pan
Add potatoes, carrots and turnips
Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cook gently 10 mins
Toss around
Add onions garlic cloves, mushrooms, celery and silverbeet
Saute another 10 minutes

Meanwhile make the Bouquet Garni
Lay thyme and bay leaves on 1 piece of celery place the other piece on top and tie up with string.
Get ready to roast in 180C oven.
Put all veges and Bouquet Garni into roasting pan
Roast until fork tender about another 15 minutes
Squeeze lemon juice over
A good grind of freshly ground black pepper
Pile onto platter
Crumble over feta cheese and tear basil leaves for garnish


Now from Katie’s Kitchen
Katie is always looking for recipes without tomatoes as she has an allergy
She developed this delicious dish very simple

Katie’s Lamb Shanks
To feed four
I large lamb shank per person
3 tablespoons flour
Sea salt & freshly ground black freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil

1 large red onion peeled and chopped
2 large carrots peeled and chopped
2 sticks of celery chopped
3 cloves garlic chopped
1 bottle red wine
1 litre chicken stock
2 large sprigs rosemary

Season the flour with salt & freshly ground black pepper and dredge
each shank, shake and brown all over in hot pan in the oil
Remove and set aside.
Add chopped vege to pan and coat with oil
Saute 5-6 minutes.
Deglaze pan with red wine
Reduce down a little
Add chicken stock

Carefully return shanks to pan along with rosemary sprigs
Bury them in the liquid.
Bring back to boil
Turn heat down and simmer
2-3 hours till shanks are fork tender.

Remove from pan
Skim fat off pan juices and reduce down by half.
Taste and test the seasoning and adjust with salt & pepper if needed.

Return shanks to pan
These are now ready to serve as soon as you are ready
We served them sitting on some mashed kumara.
And yes, we did demolish that large shank.
They were great.