Slow Cooked Lamb Shanks

We celebrated the Queen's birthday public holiday by doing lots of cooking. Aston and I made "pink cupcakes with hundreds and thousands on them" (by request) and I took advantage of a day at home to do some slow cooking. 

I was going to use the slow cooker but Stuart suggested using the oven in an effort to heat up the house on a cold and rainy day.

The original inspiration for this recipe comes from my friend Jodi at Little Foodie Steps. I didn't have all the ingredients so made some substitutions, I wasn't sure it would work but it did and it was yummy! Aston ate it all up without stopping for breath and Zachariah enjoyed munching on the soft vegies and lamb. Unfortunately I didn't take a photo so you'll just have to imagine what it looked like.

Ingredients:

• 2 lamb shanks (these were almost 1kg in weight and not trimmed or trendily cut in anyway)
  
• 1 onion chopped
• 2 tsps minced garlic
• Cumin (ground)
• 1 tin tomatoes
• 2 tins water (I used the tomato tin)
• A swede chopped into 2cm cubes
• 4 small potatoes chopped in quarters (I left the skin on)
• 2 carrots sliced
• a couple of handfuls of red lentils
• Salt & pepper

Preheat the oven to 125C

Coat the lamb shanks in cumin, rub and let rest while you fry the onions and garlic. I used a pot that can go on the stove as well as in the oven, if I was using the slow cooker I would fry on the stove and then shove everything into the pot.

Add the lamb shanks, turn to brown all sides and then add the tomatoes and water. Throw in the vegies and lentils, season to taste and let it simmer for a little bit and then put in the oven.

I cooked it for about 4 hours and stirred it twice in that time. You can leave it for as long as you like once the meat and vegies are tender (just make sure it doesn't dry out). If using a slow cooker I would put it on auto for 4-6 hours or high for 2 hours and then low for 2-4 hours.