I ate very well a few nights ago. That’s because I took the day off from work to make a cozy meal for myself and a friend – namely, baked lamb shanks and roasted potatoes with a side of honey-sweetened carrots. The inspiration? Two recipes in Rebecca Seal’s Postcards from Greece cookbook, a birthday gift I received last August.
While baked lamb shanks and roasted potatoes take a while to prepare, assembly is a breeze. And the finished dish is incredibly delicious, especially if you can get hold of Hidden Villa meat.
Start by caramelizing an onion and browning the lamb in a heavy pot. Next, add a splash of water and fresh thyme to the mix. Then pop everything in the oven to cook low and slow. After a few hours, the shanks will be done. The final step is seasoning some spuds and baking them at 400 degrees for about an hour. That’s it!
Recipe adapted from Postcards from Greece.
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 onion, halved and thinly sliced
- 4 lamb shanks (12-14 ounces each)
- 6 sprigs fresh thyme
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1¼" pieces
- 1 head garlic, cloves separated and peeled
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ⅔ cup vegetable broth
- Preheat oven to 275 degrees.
- Heat olive oil in a 6- to 8-quart heavy pot with a lid. Add onion and cook until lightly caramelized, 10-12 minutes. Remove from pot and set aside.
- Arrange lamb shanks in the pot in a single layer and cook, turning occasionally, until browned all over.
- Deglaze pot with 5 tablespoons water, scraping any brown bits from the bottom with a wooden spoon.
- Return onion to pot. Add thyme and season with salt and pepper. Cover and bake until meat is fork tender and almost falling off the bone, about 3 hours.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Place the potatoes and garlic on a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice and season with oregano, salt and pepper; toss to coat.
- Pour the vegetable broth over the potatoes.
- Bake for 45 minutes, remove from the oven and transfer garlic to a small bowl. Flip potatoes and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes until golden brown. Serve immediately with roasted garlic and baked lamb shanks.
Oven temp for the lamb?
Bake it at 275 degrees – sorry about that!