Garlic Rosemary Lamb Shanks

These garlic rosemary lamb shanks simmer in a slow cooker with beef stock, red wine and onions until they are so meltingly tender that you won’t need a knife! Carrots and potatoes cooked with the shanks round out the meal. 

Years ago, I was watching a Nigella Lawson program where she was roasting a lamb shank for one. That’s a cut I had never bought but, like everything she does, Nigella made it look so easy. 

I promptly forgot about it until I found a large shank (big enough for two) in my local grocery store and I made my purchase. Just like Nigella said, it roasted beautifully! You can see that recipe here. (It’s one I posted in my first six months of blogging before I learned a little more about photography. I leave those posts up because it’s part of the journey and, honestly, pretty photos or not, the food is delicious.) 

Ever since, I almost always have a couple of lamb shanks in the freezer, just in case. On cold and windy days, slow cooker garlic rosemary lamb shanks with potatoes and carrots are a warming hearty meal.

Garlic Rosemary Lamb Shanks

Sometimes I remove the lamb, carrots and potatoes and thicken the broth to make gravy and sometimes I serve it au jus, not thickened. I’ve included the instructions for making gravy but either way, this is a delicious meal. The longer you can leave the lamb to marinate, up to 24 hours, the better. This feeds two generously, with leftovers.

Ingredients

2 lamb shanks

Fine sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Leaves from 2-3 sprigs rosemary, plus a little extra for garnish, if desired

2 cloves garlic

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

2 tablespoon olive oil, plus extra for slow cooker

2 medium onions, peeled and sliced

1 3/4 cup or 414ml beef stock

1 cup or 240ml dry red wine

2 medium carrots, peeled and cut in chunks

2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut in chunks

To thicken the gravy:

3 tablespoons cornstarch

3 tablespoons cold water

Method

Score the lamb shanks with a sharp knife then season the shanks with salt and pepper all over, rubbing it in with your clean hands. 

Mince the garlic and rosemary leaves, discarding the stems. Sprinkle on the garlic and rosemary, massaging them in as well. 

Place both lamb shanks is a Ziploc bag, then pour the cider vinegar and olive oil over them. Seal the bag, pressing out as much air as possible. Chill for up to 24 hours. 

When you think about it, give the lamb bag a massage ot two and turn it over during the marinating time. 

Drizzle olive oil to coat the bottom of the slow cooker, then line it with the onion slices.

Add in your lamb shanks and any marinade from the bag, along with the beef stock and red wine.

Cook on high for 2 hours then switch to low for 2 hours or until the meat is tender. 

When the lamb has one more hour, add in the carrots and potatoes, tucking them as much as possible in the cooking liquid.

When the time is up, check the lamb with a fork. If it goes in really easily, the lamb is tender. If not, set your timer for another 30 minutes or so.  

When the lamb shanks are done, remove them along with the carrots and potatoes from the slow cooker and cover all to keep warm. 

 

Switch the slow cooker to high again. 

Mix the cornstarch into the cold water then add the mixture to the slow cooker, stirring well. Cook until thickened slightly. The result is a lovely rich onion gravy.

Serve the lamb, carrots and potatoes with the savory gravy, garnished with a little chopped rosemary, if desired.

Enjoy!

It’s Sunday FunDay and our theme today is Crocktober, aka recipes made in a slow cooker or cooked long and slow in an oven or on stovetop. Many thanks to our host Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm and Camilla of Culinary Cam. 

• Braised Beef Cheeks over Garlic Gnocchi by Culinary Cam
• Crockpot Orange Chicken by Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Garlic Rosemary Lamb Shanks by Food Lust People Love
• Keto Masala Beef Steaks by Sneha's Recipe
• Leftover Kabob Fajitas by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Peppered Short Ribs by Sid's Sea Palm Cooking
• Slow Cooker Cinnamon Apple Oats by Our Good Life
• Slow Cooker Chili con Carne by Palatable Pastime

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Easy Lamb Curry

This easy lamb curry has a rich gravy and is full of flavor. Using a store-bought curry paste instead of a long list of spices makes it so easy! 

My spice cupboard is full of all the spices I need to cook a full blown, made from scratch curry but sometimes I’m just too lazy to toast and grind them. That’s when a store-bought curry paste comes in handy. 

And in that same spirit of laziness, this post doesn’t have my typical process photos, just one of the well-seared lamb and onions! But truly, I don’t think they are necessary. This really lives up to its name, easy lamb curry.

Easy Lamb Curry

I am a fan of stock cubes so if you don’t have chicken broth or lamb stock, by all means use a cube here to make some. Depending on the saltiness of your broth or stock, you may not need any salt added at the end. 

Ingredients

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 tablespoon. olive oil

1 onion, sliced

1 lb or 450g cubed boneless lamb

¼ cup or 60g hot or mild Indian curry paste (such as Patak's)

1 cup or 240ml chicken broth or lamb stock

1 can (14.5 oz or 411g) chopped tomatoes and juice

6 small to medium potatoes, peeled and diced

1 cup or 120g frozen peas, thawed 235g/2

Fine sea salt, to taste

To serve: cooked rice

Optional: chutney (homemade or store-bought)

To garnish: cilantro leaves

Method

Melt the butter with the oil in a large pan and sauté the onion until it is translucent. Remove from the pan.

Add the lamb and fry till seared on all sides. Transfer to the plate and mix with the onions.

Add curry paste to the pan and stir for one minute.

Add the broth/stock and tomatoes, bring to a boil. 

Return the lamb and onion to the pan, reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes. 

Add cubed potatoes and simmer, covered, until the lamb and potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. 

Stir in the thawed peas and cook until heated through, about five minutes. Taste for salt and add some if necessary. 

Garnish with cilantro leaves and serve with cooked rice and chutney on the side for those who would like a dollop.

Enjoy!

It's Sunday FunDay and I am hosting! I chose lamb as our theme/ingredient since it's spring. Check out the links below.

• Cheesy Mutton Curry from Sneha's Recipe
• Easy Lamb Curry from Food Lust People Love
• Greek Lamb Meatballs from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Rosemary Lamb Skewers from Culinary Cam

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Easy Lamb and Fresh Tomato Curry

Ripe, juicy tomatoes add a wonderful fresh zing to the fragrant sauce in this easy lamb and fresh tomato curry. Cook it down slowly to intensify the flavors.

Many years ago, my husband and I were living in Abu Dhabi where there is a large Indian and Pakistani population so good curry restaurants abound. We either ate out or ordered in at least once a week. 

He always got the chicken jalfrezi, a relatively dry curry with lots of peppers, tomatoes and tender chicken. I always ordered the chicken maharajah, which came covered in the richest, most succulent sauce. There might well have been ground cashews in there. When I close my eyes, I can still taste it!

Here’s the rub. He always wanted some of my sauce! Nice person that I am, I did share, but not without thinking to myself that he could order his own darn sauce. Am I right?

These days I am way more likely to cook curry at home than to go out, so I always make sure it’s a saucy dish. This particular curry is full of flavor and, thanks to puréed fresh tomatoes, it has plenty of sauce to go round for all the family. 

Easy Lamb and Fresh Tomato Curry

I know that not everyone is fond of lamb. If you aren’t lovers of lamb, by all means substitute beef. For me, curry is all about the sauce and this dish is one of my favorites, whatever protein you choose.

Ingredients

1 lb 13 oz or 840g lamb ribs, chopped into bite­sized pieces 

1 teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more to taste when the dish has finished cooking

Freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon vinegar

4 large ripe tomatoes (1 lb 113⁄4 oz or 786g) 

1/4 cup or 60ml olive oil for browning the lamb 

1 onion, sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 red chili peppers, minced

3 tablespoons curry paste

1⁄4 cup or 60g plain yogurt

Good handful cilantro, chopped

Optional for garnish:

dollop of yogurt

chopped cilantro

Method

Chop the lamb into bite-sized pieces and put them in a non-reactive bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Add vinegar and toss to coat. Set aside to marinate.

Core your tomatoes, cut them in quarters and pop them in a blender. Process until completely liquid. You might have to add about 1/4-1/2 cup of water to get them moving.

In a large skillet over a medium high heat, heat the olive oil and brown the lamb in batches, and remove to a plate.

Add the sliced onion to the pan and cook for a few minutes, until softened. Add in the garlic and chili peppers and stir.

Add in the curry paste. Stir and fry for a few more minutes.

Put lamb back in the pan, along with any juices that accumulated on the plate. Stir well to cover the lamb with the curry paste, onions and garlic.

Pour in the puréed fresh tomatoes. 

Stir well. Bring to the boil then reduce the fire to a slow simmer.

Cook covered for 45 minutes or until the lamb is tender, stirring occasionally.

Remove the lid and simmer until the liquid has reduced by half, so the sauce is thick and concentrated. This could take another 10­-15 minutes. Taste for salt and add more if necessary.

Finish by stirring through the plain yogurt and chopped cilantro.

Garnish with a dollop more of the yogurt and cilantro in your serving dish, if desired. Serve with rice or naan.

Enjoy!

Welcome to the 12th edition of the 2024 Alphabet Challenge, brought to you by the letter L. Many thanks to Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for organizing and creating the challenge. Check out all the L recipes below:

• Sneha’s Recipe: Lemon Rice/Chitranna 
• Food Lust People Love: Easy Lamb and Fresh Tomato Curry
• Culinary Cam: Lingcod Over Legumes 
• Jolene’s Recipe Journal: Lemon Vinaigrette 
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Melody’s Homemade Lemonade 
• Mayuri’s Jikoni: Mediterranean Lentil Salad 
• Karen’s Kitchen Stories: Barbecue Pork Lo Mein 
• Blogghetti Lemon Pepper Tilapia Sheet Pan Dinner 
• Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice: Fresh Dill Deviled Eggs with a Hint of Lemon 
• Palatable Pastime: Liver and Onions 
• A Messy Kitchen: Lemon Balm Jelly

Here are my posts for the alphabet challenge, thus far:
A: Anchovy Deviled Eggs
B: Spicy Braised Ginger Pork Belly
C: Cecilie's Favorite Coleslaw
D: Cajun Chicken Eggplant Dressing
E: Everything Pizza Tartin
F: Baked Chicken and Feta Meatballs
G: Grape Juice Jigglers
H: Crispy Bacon-wrapped Chicken Hearts
I: Raspberry Rhubarb Ice Cream
J: Java Dry Spice Mix Chops 

K. Korean Barbecue-style Meatballs 

L. Easy Lamb and Fresh Tomato Curry - this post!

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Spicy Grilled Leg of Lamb

This spicy grilled leg of lamb is butterflied, marinated with garlic, lemon zest and za’atar and cooked up juicy and tender, perfect for a barbecue party!

Everybody loves a good leg of lamb roast but when it’s grilling season, who wants to be indoors with the oven on? This spicy grilled leg of lamb starts with a butterflied leg, making it quicker to cook that a traditional roast. And all those seasonings and the touch of flame from the grill make it more delicious. 

In case you haven’t figured it out by now, our family loves lamb. We eat it in stews, roasts for family, roasts for only two, in shish kebabs and murtabak and stuffed naan, just to mention a few of our favorites. We are also fond of slow cooked lamb shoulder and rack of lamb. Honestly, there’s nothing that says Sunday supper at our house like a beautiful rosemary and garlic spiked leg of lamb roasted to a golden brown with roasted potatoes.

But when temperatures start to rise and I am loath to turn the oven on, this spicy grilled leg of lamb is our favorite way to cook it. Removing the bones, in other words, creating a butterflied leg of lamb, opens the meat up so you can add marinade both inside and out. The result is a perfect spicy grilled leg of lamb. 

Spicy Grilled Leg of Lamb

I’ve made this recipe several times with lamb legs of varying sizes. If yours is bigger, simply increase the ingredient amounts for the marinade accordingly. I only give the weight of my most recent leg as a guide. The one before this was twice this weight! 

Ingredients

1 leg of lamb (about 2.6 lbs or 1.2 kg) - bone, sinews and gristle removed

For the marinade:

2 large cloves garlic

1 teaspoon kosher or coarse grained sea salt

1/2 teaspoon whole peppercorns

2 tablespoons za’atar (a Middle Eastern spice mix)

Juice and zest one lemon or lime

2 tablespoons olive oil

Method

Crush the peeled garlic with a mortar and pestle, along with the salt, peppercorns, za’atar and lemon (or lime, I use either depending on what's in the fridge) zest, until you have a fine paste. 

Add in the lemon (or lime) juice and olive oil and whisk to combine. 

Spread the marinade over your butterflied leg of lamb on both sides.

Pop it into a Ziploc bag and try to squeeze all the air out before sealing. Refrigerate for at least one hour or until you are ready to grill the lamb. This step can even be done the day before if you are prepping for a barbecue party. 

When you are about ready to grill, remove the lamb from the refrigerator and get the grill fired up and ready to go. We have a charcoal grill so, once lit, it takes about 20 minutes for the coals to start turning grey.

Cook the spicy grilled leg of lamb to your desired degree of doneness. We like it pretty pink inside so that takes about 12-15 minutes a side. My apologies for no actual grilling photos. In the dark outside, when we finally got around to grilling this time, they would not have been helpful. Plus only YOU know how rare (or not) you like your lamb. 

Leave to rest for about 10 minutes then slice the spicy grilled leg of lamb thinly to serve. 

Since it's summer, I suggest a side salad as an accompaniment. If you really need potatoes, how about a pumped up potato salad? (I wanted to call this Pimp My Potato Salad but my daughter wouldn't let me. It's so good!)

Enjoy! 

It's Sunday FunDay and I am hosting! Our theme is Summer Grilling because who doesn't love a little smoky flavor and cooking outside. Check out the great recipes we are sharing below: 

• Basque Pipérade with Grilled Tuna Steaks from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Grilled Eggplant with Garlic and Parmesan from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Spicy Grilled Leg of Lamb from Food Lust People Love
• Stuffed Pizza Burgers from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Tandoori Gobi - Cauliflower Made On Gas Stove from Sneha’s Recipe
• Tandoori Masala - Spice Mixture from Mayuri's Jikoni
• Tequila Lime Chicken from Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Vietnamese Lemongrass Pork Kebabs from Palatable Pastime

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Strawberry Mint Glazed Roasted Rack of Lamb

A tart and fruity strawberry and mint glaze makes a wonderful sticky topping for this strawberry mint glazed roasted rack of lamb. It’s the perfect dish for date night or the ingredients are easily doubled for a family dinner. 

Years ago I discovered quite by accident that a rack of lamb takes only 45-60 minutes to roast, which is so much quicker than the leg, my usual part of a lamb to roast. As much as we love lamb chops, I had never bought them all hooked together still. 

One day I arrived home to find a care package with big prawns, some smoked salmon and a vacuum-packed rack of lamb stashed in my refrigerator. One of the catering contractors who supplied my husband’s drilling rigs had dropped it all off as a thank you for the business.

Those were the days of achingly slow dial-up internet so I consulted my trusty Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook (1980 edition.) Right there on page 227, the instructions were so simple: Season with salt and pepper. Roast for 1 hour or until you reach your desired internal temperature. In the last 15-30 minutes, brush with an apricot glaze aka warmed apricot jam. Honestly, does it get easier than that? Who knew!

Good Housekeeping ended with the instructions of how to remove the back bones on one side of the rack so the chops can be easily cut apart. Let me offer you a little tip. Ask your butcher to do this before you even bring that rack of lamb home. Roasting and serving is quicker and easier without those back bones to deal with. 

Strawberry Mint Glazed Roasted Rack of Lamb

Instead of the Good Housekeeping recommendation of apricot glaze, you can use any fruit you like so this can be a wonderfully seasonal dish. This time I used strawberries and mixed them with the more traditional accompaniment to lamb, classic mint sauce. Any leftover glaze can be served with the roasted rack of lamb, to spoon over the chops. So good! 

Ingredients

For the strawberry mint glaze/sauce:

7 oz or 200g strawberries

Pinch salt

1­-2 teaspoons sugar (if needed, depending on the sweetness of your strawberries)

2 tablespoons prepared mint sauce (Not mint jelly! Proper mint sauce has a bite from the vinegar. I recommend Colman's Classic Mint Sauce.)

For the rack of lamb:

1 1/2 lbs or 680g rack of lamb, preferably with a nice layer of fat on top

1 teaspoon flakey sea salt 

1 large clove garlic

1⁄2 teaspoon peppercorns (I use mixed peppercorn but just black are fine.)

Method

Start your oven preheating to 375°F or 190°C. 

Use a sharp knife to score the fat on the top of the rack of lamb. Don't cut all the way through to the meat.

Use a mortar and pestle to crush the peppercorns, garlic and salt salt into a paste.

Rub the seasonings into the scored fat then place it on a rack in a baking pan. Set aside. 

To make the strawberry mint glaze, hull the strawberries and chop them into quarters. Cook them until soft in a small covered pot over a medium flame, with the pinch of salt and a splash of water.

Taste the strawberries and add a little sugar if they aren’t sweet. 

Mash the strawberries with a fork and cook them down until they are a thick sauce. Remove from the heat and stir in the mint sauce. Set it aside

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When your oven has reached the proper temperature, put the pan in the oven and roast the rack of lamb for about 30 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches about 115°F or 46°C, for rare chops.

Remove the rack from the oven and brush it all over thickly with the strawberry mint glaze.

Return the rack to the oven for another 15 minutes or until the internal temperature is about 135°F or 57°C. Remove it from the oven and tent it with foil for about 10 minutes.

Slice into six chops and serve the remaining strawberry mint sauce alongside the chops.

Enjoy! 

It’s Sunday FunDay again and this time I’m hosting and we are sharing lamb recipes. Check out all the delicious recipes below. 

• Handi Mutton Mughlai from Sneha's Recipe
• Lamb Meatballs in Tomato Sauce from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Lamb Stew from Making Miracles
• Stinging Nettle and Lamb Börek from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Stir-fried Mongolian Lamb with Scallions from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Strawberry Mint Glazed Roasted Rack of Lamb from Food Lust People Love

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Roasted Rack of Lamb!

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Sous Vide Bone-in Leg of Lamb

Tender and juicy, this sous vide bone-in leg of lamb is guaranteed to be cooked to perfection inside and out. You do have to start one day ahead of when you would like to serve it, but most of the time is hands off, with a sous vide precision cooker. Finish it off by roasting in a hot oven.

When my son-in-law gave me a sous vide precision cooker for Christmas several years ago, I had very little knowledge about that method of cooking. A lot of research and a few experiments won me over. Sous vide is a great way to control the internal temperature of meat, making sure that it’s not over-cooked or dried out.

My one issue, which I touched upon in my post for a chicken crown roast, is that all the recipes I could find online were for boneless meat. Expanding on my triumph with the brace of guinea fowl and chicken roast, I gave a whole leg of lamb a try. Another triumph. In fact, I’ve made a whole leg of lamb this way a couple of times and now I don’t think I’ll roast one any other way. The only downside is that I have to plan ahead, but it's totally worth it!

The inside is tender and juicy from the long cooking at low temperature in the sous vide but the outside still has all the divine golden bits (and drippings in the pan) to make a delicious gravy from its time in a hot oven. Best of both worlds.

Sous Vide Bone-in Leg of Lamb

If you want tender lamb cooked to perfection, sous vide is the way to go. Perfect lamb every time. I'll be honest. I wasn't planning to share this recipe because I didn't know how popular sous vide cooking would get, but it was so good, I couldn't not share. Please forgive the non-staged photos.

Ingredients
1 whole leg of lamb, bone in – about 2 kg or 4 lbs 6 ozs
2 teaspoons fine sea salt
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
3-4 sprigs fresh rosemary or thyme, stems discarded, leaves minced

Method
Use a sharp knife to score the fat on the leg of lamb. Rub it with the salt, pepper and herb of your choice. I usually do rosemary because it partners so well with lamb, but thyme is also good.

Put the leg of lamb in a sealable, sous-vide-friendly plastic bag with the olive oil and get all the air out of the bag by immersing it in water and sealing it up.

Pop your sous vide precision cooker into a large vessel of water and set the temperature for 131°F. Put the vacuum-bag-seasoned leg into the water. Sous vide for 22 hours.

When the 22 hours are up, you have two choices. If you are ready to roast and serve the leg of lamb, you can preheat the oven to 375°F or 190°C and roast it to an internal temperature of about 130°F or 55°C for rare lamb or 145°F or 62.78°C for medium well. Cover with foil and rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

Or you can chill the leg of lamb, still in the sous vide bag, until you are ready to roast.

If you chose option two, chill the lamb in the refrigerator till ready to roast. Bring it closer to room temperature as you preheat the oven to 375°F or 190°C.

Roast the leg of lamb in your preheated oven until it is well browned and has an internal temperature of 130°F or 55°C for rare lamb or 145°F or 62.78°C for medium well. Cover with foil and rest before slicing.

Enjoy!

Welcome to another MultiCooker post! Check out all of the other alternative cooking method posts we are sharing today.

Pressure Cooker & Instant Pot Recipes:

• Instant Pot Carolina-Style Pulled Pork from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Instant Pot Orange Chicken from Making Miracles
• Pressure Cooker Carrot And Drumstick Sambar from Sneha's Recipe
• Thai Green Curry Mussels (Instant Pot) from Palatable Pastime

Slow Cooker Recipes:

• Maple & Honey Butter Crockpot Sweet Potatoes from Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Slow Cooker Chicken Fajitas from A Day in the Life on the Farm

Sous Vide Recipes:

• Sous Vide Bone-in Leg of Lamb from Food Lust People Love
• Sous Vide Chicken from Sid's Sea Palm Cooking

Tell your friends about #MulticookerMonday! We post each month on the third Monday with trusted recipes for your favorite small appliances!

Multicooker Monday is a blogger group created by Sue of Palatable Pastime for all of us who need encouragement to make better use of our small appliances like slow cookers, Instant Pots, Air Fryers, rice cookers and sous vide machines. We get together every third Monday of the month to share our recipes. If you are a food blogger who would like to post with us, please request to join our Facebook group.

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