This recipe was updated on 21 July 2013. Some instructions
and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.
I usually don’t make this dish in the summer (even though
it’s been a cool summer this year), as this is more of a Fall or Winter meal,
but lamb shanks were on sale and they’re one of my favorite ingredients. I
previously made this dish with red wine or port but decided instead to try a
Chardonnay this time, and I was pleased with the results (you can just as
easily use chicken stock). I also got the idea to add lemon to the dish from
this recipe
that was featured in the Wall Street Journal. However, what really makes this
dish tasty are the spices – cumin, fennel, coriander, allspice, and pepper -
which are toasted before being ground (and then adding turmeric). The spice mix
would also work for pork (a future recipe).
The other piece of information came from America’s Test Kitchen. They use
Minute Tapioca (made by Kraft) to thicken sauces in a slow cooker. They found
that tapioca starch holds up well to the long cooking time in slow cooker,
whereas other thickeners, such as corn starch, break down and don’t thicken.
Minute Tapioca can be found in any grocery store, but it’s pretty expensive
when you compare it to regular tapioca starch, which is available in Asian
markets. They both thicken the liquid equally as well, so I use regular tapioca
starch.
The Lamb Shanks can either be browned in a wok or Dutch oven,
or in a barbeque (smoked with hickory and rosemary) before adding the shanks to
the slow cooker. The lamb shanks can be browned the night before cooking.
Enjoy!
