Greek-style slow-cooked lamb shanks with feta

Serves:

Ingredients

• 4 small ‰frenched‰  lamb shanks
• half a cup flour
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 small garlic cloves, halved
• 1 tablespoon oregano leaves
• 5 small onions, peeled and quartered
• 200g Greek feta cheese, crumbled
• 3 large potatoes, sliced thickly
• 1 cup white wine or water
• 1 cup water
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (for drizzling)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ground pepper to taste
• lemon wedges to serve

Method

Dust shanks in flour. Bring a large frying pan to medium heat and then add 2 tbsp oil. Brown shanks in batches. As you brown the last batch of shanks, put onions into the pan and cook until they have a nice color, about 3 minutes.

Place shanks on a plate, and make small slits pushing garlic slices into the slits.

In a slow cooker, layer potato slices first, then the onions, half the feta cheese, and then finally the shanks.

Sprinkle with remaining feta, oregano, 2 tablespoons olive oil and then the wine and water. Grind pepper over and sprinkle with salt.

Set the slow cooker on high and cook for 3 hours. Turn the shanks at this point and continue cooking for 2 more hours until meat is very tender. Slice meat off the bones and place vegetables into shallow bowls. Top with sliced meat and cover with the juices from the slow cooker.

Serve immediately with lemon wedges to squeeze over.

Notes

• You can use a large ‰french oven‰, or cast-iron casserole dish for this recipe. Follow the same steps but use the same pot to cook all ingredients in. The oil from browning the shanks should remain in the bottom of the dish. Cover tightly with foil first, then cover with the lid, and cook in the oven on 180C for 2 and a half  hours, then turn the shanks and cook for a further 1hour, or until the meat is very tender.
• I based this recipe on a dish my husband fell in love with on our holiday last year in Mykonos. He ate it a few nights in a row and was so pleased with my version.
• You can leave the skins on the potato; I peeled them only because they look prettier!
• ‰Frenched‰ means that most of the outer fat and tendons on the shanks has been removed and therefore is much leaner ‰ask you butcher to do this job for you.
• This recipe was created by Kristine Duran-Thiessen for Kidspot, New Zealand‰s best recipe finder

Serving Suggestions

Note