In South Africa and especially in winter there are very few dishes better than a good soup, a “potjie” or even stew to keep the family happy and warm during those long, cold winter nights. In the second edition of What’s Cooking by Rustenburg’s Professional Cooking Academy, Madelein Cloete – Principal of PCA – surprised us by demonstrating how easy it actually is to prepare the ever popular lamb shank with a few extra “secrets” up her sleeve…
Just one look at the photographs will convince you to treat your family to a feast! This is how Madelein does it…
Slow Braised Lamb Shank:
4 medium lamb shanks (1.4 kg)
2 medium onions quartered
60 ml olive oil
50 g tomato paste
1 heaped teaspoon of chopped garlic
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
2 sprigs of thyme
2 dried bay leaves
1 x 410 g tin chopped tomatoes
750 ml red wine / lamb stock / beef stock
4 medium carrots cut into chunks
6 Baby Marrows
6 Yellow patty pans
500 g baby potatoes
10 ml salt
Zest of one lemon
2.5 ml sugar
Method:
Heat up the oven to 160 ̊C. You need to use a cast iron pot (or a pot the can go into the oven) with high sides.
Heat up the oil in the pot and seal the lamb shanks by frying them until golden brown on all sides. Do not put all the shanks in at one time as they will then boil instead of fry. Remember this will add great colour to the dish. Once all the shanks are sealed remove from the pot and fry the onion in the same pot until translucent.
Add the tomato paste, garlic, rosemary, thyme and bay leaves. Fry this together until the tomato paste turns a darker red colour. Place the lamb shanks back into the pot and add the stock. Place the pot into the oven for 2 hours. Let the lamb shanks braise gently.
Remove the pot from the oven and check the stock level. Adjust by adding some water if there is not enough liquid to cook the vegetables and potatoes. Add the vegetables and potatoes to the pot and place it back into the oven. This will cook for a further 45 –60 minutes.
You can slightly thicken the sauce if desired. (Make slurry with 15 ml Maizena and 100 ml cold water) Stir this into the sauce to thicken the sauce.
Serve with Wheat or Red Rice.
Red Rice
Rinse 1 cup of red rice under running cold water. Add 3 cups water and put in a pot, add 5 ml salt. Boil for 30 minutes. This rice is very similar to brown rice and is very high in fiber.
Wheat (Koring)
Rinse 1 cup of wheat under running cold water. Add 4 cups water and put in a pot, add 5 ml salt. Boil for 50 minutes.
