This lamb shanks recipe is provided by Kalleske Wines in the Barossa Valley. Slow cooking in a rich sauce gives the succulent meat strong flavours that need a well structured red wine. In this case you can cook with a grenache based blend and serve with Kalleske Clarry’s Red.

Ingredients

• 8 French trimmed Lamb shanks
• 2 rashes bacon finely chopped
• 2 red onions finely diced
• 1 kg button mushrooms
• 2 cloves garlic
• 3 carrots finely diced
• 2 stalks celery finely diced
• 1 Cup pitted kalamata olives
• 1 Cup semi dried tomatoes
• Fresh rosemary and thyme
• Salt and pepper

Braising Ingredients:

• 1/2 Bottle red wine - Grenache based (Kalleske Clarry’s Red)
• 300ml good quality beef stock
• 200ml Balsamic vinegar
• 200ml water

Basil Mash:

• 2 cups freshly made creamy mashed potato
• 1 bunch finely chopped basil leaves

To serve

• 100g Parmesan cheese

Method:

Heat a large baking dish and sear the lamb shanks until browned all over. Remove from heat, add all the vegetables and sauté. Put the shanks back in with the bacon and vegetables then add the braising ingredients, olives and semi dried tomatoes. Place a lid over the baking dish or seal with foil and bake in a moderate oven (180C) for about 2 hours or until the shanks are cooked. Remove the shanks from the cooking liquid and keep warm. Now put the reserved liquid on the stove, bring to the boil and reduce until a lovely thick and syrupy texture is achieved.

While the shanks are cooking make some really creamy mashed potato and add the finely chopped basil while still warm so the flavours can fuse together.

To make the Parmesan crisps freshly grate some good quality Parmesan and shape it into 12 discs on a sheet of non stick baking paper using a ring mould. Grill until the Parmesan has melted and lightly browned. Let the discs cool a bit.

To serve, place some basil mash just slightly off centre on a warm plate and put two lamb shanks over the mash. Pour over some of the lovely reduced sauce with all the vegetables and garnish with the Parmesan crisps.

The rustic flavour of Grenache wines is a great pairing with rich sauce and the basil mash provides an interesting counterpoint.