Irish Lamb Shank Stew with Potato Mash

There are people who either hate lamb or love lamb for its gaminess. I am the former, so when I cook lamb, I have to make sure the strong and peculiar lamb-y taste is toned down by the cooking method or the herbs used. The only lamb I would eat was when it's cooked with tons of cumin. I have never tried cooking any other ways until stumbled a recipe on The Good Mood Food Blog. 

The weather started to become wintry cold and dry here in New York a couple of weeks ago and I decided it'd be a perfect time to make this Irish lamb stew for the season. Also in Chinese medicine, lamb is the type of "hot" food by nature and nourishes the body best when eating on a cold winter day. 

It's fall-off-the-bone good and my mom wouldn't even tell it from beef!

For the lamb stew:

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp of canola oil
• 4 lamb shanks
• 4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
• 1/2 onion and 3 shallots, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, finely diced
• 1 stalk of celery, finely sliced
• 350ml of dry red wine
• A few sprigs of thyme, tied in a bunch with kitchen twine
• 650ml of beef stock
• A good pinch of sea salt and ground black pepper

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. 
2. In a large casserole dish, heat the canola oil and add the lamb shanks and brown on all sides. Remove and set aside.
3. Sautee the onions and shallots for two to three minutes until soft but not browned. Add the garlic, carrot and celery and fry for another couple of minutes. Pop in the thyme and stir through.
4. Add the red wine and bring to the boil and simmer for five minutes.
5. Place in the browned lamb shanks and pour over the stock. Bring to a steady simmer, then cover and place in the oven at 300oF for three hours, turning them half way through the cooking time, until the meat is extremely tender and almost falls off the bone. Toward the end of the cooking time, taste and season
6. Take few ladles of the juices and place them in a small saucepan. Reduce by half as gravy. 

For the potato mash

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1 bunch of spring onions, finely sliced
• 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup half and half
• extra unsweetened almond milk
• A good pinch of sea salt and black pepper

Directions:

1. Add the peeled and diced potato to a pot of cold water, cover, place over a high heat and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the potato is tender when pierced with a fork.
2. When the potatoes are cooked, remove from the heat, drain into a colander, then add back into the pot with the butter, half and half, and almond milk. Using a potato masher, mash the potatoes until smooth and creamy. Add in more almond milk to your desired consistency.
3. Add in the spring onion, steamed cabbage, sea salt and black pepper and stir through with a spoon until evenly combined.

Serve the lamb shanks with potato mash and drizzle with gravy.