Sara Douglass's Lamb Shanks

I used to hang out on a forum online a few years ago and one of the other posters was Sara Douglass, famous Australian author. She is into domesticity and cooking too. Anyway we were all exchanging crock pot recipes and she posted this one. I have made it a couple of times and adapted it a bit to reduce the grease factor. There is a very similar one at Taste.com.au so not sure which one came first. But since I originally got it from Sara I am sticking to the above title. I have tweaked it a bit and this is the final version.

Start the day before you want to eat this, unless your arteries need clogging up.

1 tablespoon olive oil
4 or 5 or 6 lamb shanks, frenched (this means they have cut off the knobby end bone and it helps them fit in the dish better. Coles sell them frenched. Some lamb shanks look like they came off a dinosaur, so choose smallish ones. One per person is plenty usually, depends on how many you are feeding)
about 1 1/2 to 2 cups chicken stock, home made is best but bought ok, low salt though.
1 cup of red wine, drinkable stuff
1 jar of cranberry sauce, whole berry
3 or 4 rosemary sprigs, leave whole so you can fish them out later
1 to 2 tablespoons garlic butter, I use the bought stuff, you could just use regular butter and crushed garlic
2 to 3 tablespoons flour or more depending on how much juice you end up with

Heat a frypan, add the oil, and brown off the shanks about 3 to 4 minutes each side, turning till brown all round. Place in a big casserole dish. Mix together the stock, red wine and cranberry sauce and pour over shanks. Bake, covered in oven at 180 C for an hour and a half.

Remove from oven, remove shanks to a plate and cover with cling film and put in the fridge. Pour sauce into another container and refrigerate, preferably overnight.

Next day, peel off the layer of fat from the sauce. It should look like white chocolate. Discard this, because that's where the resemblance ends, and fish out the rosemary stalks. Microwave the bowl till the jelly like sauce has warmed up and it is liquidy again. Measure the sauce, it should be around 3 cups or so. (I have a big pryrex measuring jug which I use instead of the bowl, they are worth every cent)

In a saucepan, melt the garlic butter and add flour and cook for about a minute. I allow about a level tablespoon of flour per cup of sauce maximum for a thick sauce, maybe err a little on the less side, since it will be cooked for another hour yet. Pour in the warmed sauce and whisk till it comes to a boil and thickens.

Put the shanks back in the (now clean of course) casserole dish aand pour over the thickened sauce. Put in a 150C oven for an hour maybe an hour and a half but watch for over browning. The meat should be just about falling off the bone and fork tender.

Serve over mashed potato with a green veg. This is just yummy.
You could also do this in a slow cooker. I have also done the first stage in a pressure cooker.

Beef Vindaloo Curry (Slow Cooker)

Great winter meal for the working family. Or family that goes out all day. Leftovers freeze up well for workday lunches. KISA would eat this every day if he could.

2 onions, chopped
1/3 to 1/2 jar Pataks Vindaloo Curry Paste (Test your palate first, this stuff is HOT!)
1kg gravy beef (shin of beef), chopped into 1 inch cubes or so
2 tin chopped tomatoes
any veges you fancy adding, or none if you don't want to

Spray the sides of the crock pot insert, plop everything in and stir up.
Put on low and leave it for the day.
Serve with rice.
Warms your cockles.