Greek style Lamb Shanks

Saturday, 24th January 2015

Ultimate Slow Cooking p75. Brown the lamb shanks on all sides, and place them in the pre-heated slow cooker. Soften onions and add crushed coriander seeds, sherry, bay leaves and honey. Pour over the lamb and cook on the slow cooker high setting for 5-7 hours. Remove the lamb and keep it warm while reducing/thickening the sauce. Garnish with orange zest.
One of the few slow cooker things I have made recently where the meat came out as tender as expected, and properly falling off the bone. Possibly I need to use the high setting more often. Very good with simple mash.

Slow-Cooked Shin of Beef

Saturday, 22nd February 2014

Try as I might I can't get slow cooked meat to come out the way it should. This was in the slow cooker for 5 or 6 hours, but the meat was still quite dry and tough.
The sauce with onions, mushrooms and red wine, was delicious, as were the chips.

Slow Braised Beef Shin

Sunday, 8th December 2013

Turn on the slow cooker with a little wine in it, to warm up. Season a slice of Beef Shin or Leg generously and then brown it for several minutes on both sides in a hot pan. Move it to the slow cooker, and add onion to the pan and brown it for a few minutes. Add a generous amount of red wine and deglaze the pan and then some stock, bay leaves and rosemary. Reduce by about a third and pour it all into to the slow cooker. Add some whole, unpeeled cloves of garlic. Cook on medium for several hours. Add some quartered mushrooms and whole button onions and cook for another hour.
On this occasion, I decided to serve the gravy as it was, but I should have removed some of it from the pot and thickened it.
I served this with mash, which was OK, and leeks, which I burnt and which were horrible. A wide pasta would probably have been better. Still the beef, mushrooms and onions were very good. The whole cloves of garlic do not overpower the dish when cooked this way, but are still pretty garlicky when you squeeze them out of their skins to eat.

Slow Cooked Lamb

Sunday, 24th June 2012

Lamb shoulder cooked in the slow cooker, with onions and tomatoes, and pasta.
This was only OK. The slow cooking didn't do much for the flavour of the lamb and the sauce was far too liquid and without sufficient intensity of flavour.
Pasta was the wrong choice to accompany it.

Lamb braised in White Wine

Friday, 22nd April (evening)

Done in the slow cooker while I was out. Braised the lamb in white wine with bacon, onions, garlic and rosemary. Served with sauteed potatoes.
The lamb came out wonderfully tender, but still with a nice meaty texture and flavour. The slow cooking helped the sweetness of the onions to come through, and cooked them perfectly without reducing them to mush. A hearty Turkey Flats Shiraz washed it down well.