The Procrastinator......

Well I thought it was about time I made an appearance.  I would be the middle disorganised sister that seems to be procrastinating a little too much lately. Perhaps it is due to us recently moving another house next to ours to join together with ours and me spending all my time in the new half next to the fire and not doing all the things I should be doing in the old half (which is freezing and just depressing me at the moment.)
Anyway back to my introduction, as I mentioned I am the middle sister and I can't seem to make up my mind which craft I enjoy and therefore seem to try everything and not manage to get much finished. I am hoping this will change now that I actually have room to move and will eventually have a mostly dedicated crafting area. I currently have several sewing projects on my list, always some scrapbooking that I would like to do, renovations and decorating that I must get underway, recipes that I would like to try and I recently discovered that I like attempting novelty cakes. No wonder I never seem to finish anything hehe.

Anyway in honour of the weather finally changing for us and finally getting some rain (sorry we are farmers and we need the rain), I thought I would share a yummy recipe ideal for this kind of weather.

Now not everyone likes shanks although they seem to have become rather fashionable of late, once considered a cheap meat they are definitely now not as affordable as they once were.  Lucky for us, we kill our own meat and therefore I always get shanks. It has taken me a while to get Mr. Farmer to come around to shanks.  He always referred to them as the dog food, and I guess when I first started cooking them I use to just boil them with a few aromatics over a slow heat until they were nearly falling apart and serve them with a bit of white sauce.  Kinda bland now that I look back but I always liked them. The following recipe however is anything but bland and I have managed to convince Mr Farmer that they are worthy (now to convince him to keep the liver for me, won't hold my breath).

ITALIAN STYLE LAMB SHANKS

Preparation: 20 mins
Cooking: 2 1/2 hours
Serves: 6
Keeps: 3 days in refrigerator, covered

THE INGREDIENTS

1 tablespoon vegetable oil 6 lamb shanks, trimmed
12 French shallots, peeled
4 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried
1 teaspoon paprika
1 cup red wine
1 cup water
1 tablespoon vegemite
2 tablespoon tomato paste
400g can tomatoes
1 red capsicum
1 yellow capsicum

THE FUN

Preheat the oven to 180°C for 15 minutes.
Heat Roaster over medium heat for 3 minutes
Add oil and brown lamb in 2 batches. Set meat aside.
Reduce heat under pan, add shallots and cook, covered, for 3 minutes.
Add the remaining ingredients and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.
Return the shanks to the pan and coat with the sauce.
Cover and place in the oven to cook for 2 hours. If you can manage 3 hours all the better.
Serve with mashed potato.
Chefs Tips- - This dish will freeze well for 3 months. - Chicken could replace lamb but you will need to adjust the cooking time to 40 minutes.

Hope you enjoy.
Jen AKA the Farmers Wife
P.S. Mr. Farmer does question how italian they are when they contain vegemite in the recipe hehe.