Tasty Morsels 

1 leek, trimmed and roughly chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tblsp smoked paprika
2 sprigs of mint, leaves chopped
Olive oil
2-3 lamb shanks
1/2 bottle of white wine
1/2 head of garlic, broken into cloves, unpeeled
1/4 tsp dried chilli flakes
1/2 bunch of thyme

Heat a teaspoon of olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the leeks and celery and soften for 5 minutes.

Mix the paprika, mint, some sea salt and pepper, and a drop or two of olive oil. Rub over the lamb shanks before placing snugly into the pan with the leeks.

Pour over the wine, then add the garlic cloves, chilli and thyme. The lamb shanks should be almost covered with liquid – if not, top up with water or vegetable stock.

Bring liquid to a simmer, cover and cook gently for 2 hours, until the meat is falling off the bone.

Read more: http://ooh-look.blogspot.com/2010/06/dark-and-moody-lamb-shanks-with-leeks.html#ixzz18gJs76Zu

Read more: http://ooh-look.blogspot.com/2010/06/dark-and-moody-lamb-shanks-with-leeks.html#ixzz18gJiJRGN

Adapted from: Ooh, Look…

Ohhh. Lamb… It’s so tasty. Insert cold, foggy day into this picture. Yeah, you know what I’m talking about.  

This is a really beautiful dish when it’s cooking, too. I mean, look at those colors. I’m always a huge fan of paprika. Okay, so, as usual, there’s something different in my recipe. For once I didn’t need to cut down the recipe by half (or more) but I did have to substitute a couple items. I used sherry instead of white wine, which seemed just fine. And then I accidentally – there’s always an “accidentally,” isn’t there – bought chicken stock instead of veggie stock. But then, because my pot was slightly too large I couldn’t cover the lamb with enough liquid and had to bring water into the equation as well.

So next time I’ll probably hunt for the lid of my smaller pot, which is why I didn’t use that one. And I also think I would get more flavor out of the meat if i hadn’t added any water. I also had a problem with my burner on the lowest setting. It was still too high of a simmer, in my opinion, that next time I might just put the entire pot in the oven at a super-low temperature for the entire 2 hours.