Italian Slow Cooker Lamb Shanks Recipes

ITALIAN-STYLE LAMB SHANKS

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• Rub lamb shanks with olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper.
• Heat a heavy Dutch oven . When hot, drizzle a thin layer of olive oil to coat the bottom. Sear the lamb shanks until browned and remove from the pot.
• To the same pot, add a teaspoon of olive oil and the sliced sweet onions. Toss to coat with the pan drippings. Reduce heat and cover.
• Sweat the onions until limp but not browned, stirring often.
• When they are limp, add the wine and cook for two minutes, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot.
• Add garlic cloves, tomatoes, and the water. Stir to combine.
• Return the lamb shanks to the pot.
• Reduce heat to low and simmer, turning lamb shanks occasionally, for 1 1/2 hours or until tender. Add additional water if the sauce becomes too thick.
• Serve braised lamb shanks with cooked pasta, rice, or mashed potatoes and sprinkle with parsley.
• Enjoy!

ITALIAN SLOW COOKER LAMB SHANKS

Steps:

• 1. In a large skillet cook bacon on medium low heat until crisp. Remove to slow cooker. Combine flour, rosemary, chiles, two good pinches of salt and grindings of pepper. Dust each lamb shank in the mixture. 2. Add olive oil to the pan and brown shanks on each side over medium heat. Remove and place in one layer in slow cooker. 3. Add onion, celery and carrot and cook for 3 minutes to soften. Add garlic and cook another minute. Add balsamic and white wine and let it cook to reduce halfways, and remaining ingredients, stir to combine and pour over shanks. 4. Set slow cooker on high for 3-4 hours or low for 8 hours. 5. Can be made a day ahead, separate sauce from shanks when storing and spoon the fat off the sauce if necessary.

LAMB SHANKS AND POTATOES

Steps:

• In a 5- to 6-quart slow cooker, stir together tomatoes and puree, tomato paste, jam, garlic, orange zest, rosemary, ginger, and cinnamon. Season with salt and pepper. Add lamb and potatoes, stirring to combine.
• Cover, and cook on low for 8 hours (or on high for 5 hours), until lamb and potatoes are tender. Season again with salt and pepper, if desired. Serve.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Follow step 1 (above), using a 5-quart Dutch oven or heavy pot with a tight fitting lid instead of the slow cooker. Add 2 cups water, and cover. Transfer to oven; cook until lamb and potatoes are tender, 2 to 2 1/2 hours.

SLOW COOKER LAMB SHANKS

Steps:

• Heat half the oil in a large frying pan.
• Toss the lamb in flour that has been seasoned with salt and pepper; shake away excess and cook the lamb over high heat until browned all over; transfer to the bowl of a slow cooker.
• Add remaining oil the the same pan and sauté onions, carrots and garlic, stirring, over a medium heat for about 2 minutes or until the onion is starting to soften and then add the tomato paste and cook stirring for a further minute.
• Add the wine to the pan, bring to the boil and then stir in stock, undrained tomatoes, sugar and bouquet garni and bring the boil; pour over the lamb in the slow cooker, making sure the lamb is covered by the liquid.
• Cover and cook for 6 to 8 hours on the low setting or until lamb is soft and fall off the bone (see notes).
• Remove the lamb from the slow cooker and cover to keep warm.
• Turn the cooker to the high setting, cook uncovered for about 30 minutes or until sauce thicken slightly, removing any fat from the surface.
• Serve the lamb with the sauce, instant polenta and steamed green vegetables, if desired.
• Suitable to freeze but not to microwave.
• JULIE'S NOTES - I made this dish simultaneously in two types of slow cookers. It was interesting to see how the low settings differed between them. The cooking varied by about 2 hours, as one cooker had a much lower heat than the other. It is important to keep an eye out, taste as you go and use your own judgement. Bouquet garni is a bundle of fresh herbs, usually by leaf, sprig of thyme and parsley stalks, tied together with kitchen string. The bundle is removed at the end of cooking and discarded.

SLOW-COOKER LAMB SHANKS

Steps:

• If you need to preheat your slow cooker then turn it on now. In a large hot frying pan, add half the oil and brown the lamb shanks all over, then transfer them to the slow cooker. This will take you about 10 mins and you may need to do it in batches. Add the remaining oil to the frying pan and fry the onion gently until it starts to turn translucent, then stir in the tomato purée and flour and cook for a minute.
• Add the red wine and bring it to a boil, stirring the flour and purée into the wine until you have a smooth sauce around the onion pieces. Tip into the slow cooker. Pour the stock into the same pan and bring it to a boil, then tip into the slow cooker. Add the carrots garlic, bay leaves, thyme and parsley stalks to the slow cooker and put the lid on. Cook on low for eight hours or on high for four hours. Turn the shanks over at some point during the cooking.
• After eight hours the lamb should be tender and starting to fall off the bone. If the sauce is too thin lift out the lamb and carrots and tip the sauce into a pan, boil it rapidly until it starts to thicken before adding the parsley.