Braised Lamb Shanks

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Ingredients

6 Lamb shanks, free of all silver skin, the Kings Butcher will do this for you
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 Cup large diced onions
1 Cup baby carrots
1 Cup large diced celery
3 Cloves of garlic, minced
2 Cups of good quality red wine (if you can drink it than you can cook with it)
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
1 Cup tomato paste
2 Cups water
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
½ Cup prepared pesto sauce (mint, basil or sundried tomato)

Preparation

1. Season lamb shanks with salt and pepper.

2. Heat a large Dutch oven with 2 tbls vegetable oil, working in batches of three, sear each of the lamb shanks until the exterior of each shank is golden brown. When done remove all of but 1/3 of the oil from the bottom of the pan.

3. Add in all the vegetables and sauté for 5 minutes, add in tomato paste and stir for 3 minutes. Deglaze the pan with the red wine (being careful of any flame ups) and add in rosemary.

4. Add the lamb back into the pan and cover with water shanks ¾ of the way up. Cover with a lid and bring to a hard boil, reduce down to a simmer. Cook for 3 hours or until a fork inserted into the lamb goes in easy. Every hour you want to skim off any foam that forms on the top of the pot.

5. Carefully remove cooked lamb shanks and keep warm, Strain cooking liquid and place strained sauce in a clean sauce pan and reduce down by half. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.

6. Place cooked lamb shanks on a platter, pour sauce over each shank and top each lamb shank with a 1 tbls of prepared pesto.