Nov 6

Nov 6 Pulled lamb shank and red wine pie

Lamb is a meat which is often overlooked, or seen as simply a Sunday joint, when it has so much to offer. It is flavoursome, tender, and not just for eating at Easter! A lamb shank slowly braised in red wine is a good thing, so a lamb shank slowly braised in red wine and then encased in pastry is a VERY good thing. It’s good, warming, winter grub and a lovely change from a traditional shepherd’s pie.

This recipe is great because whilst the cooking time is admittedly fairly long, the hands-on time to make this dish is minimal. It is a proper ‘throw-it-all-in-the-pan’ kind of shin-dig, and that is the kind of cooking I can really get behind. Slow-braising meat like lamb shank is where it really begins to shine. Flavours mature and develop, the fat melts into the sauce making it thick and velvety and the strands of meat pull away from the bone with no effort required at all. Once the shanks have been braised, I used two forks to shred the meat and then mix it back into the reduced sauce. This filling will keep for up to three days if you want to prepare this recipe ahead of time.

By all means, make the puff-pastry from scratch in this recipe if you’ve got time! I use a shop-bought all butter puff and get excellent results, but you are welcome to make your own. Be sure to allow your filling to cool completely before topping with pastry, or the butter in the pastry will melt and you won’t get that gorgeous puff.

This dish is all about the lamb, and I’m using Welsh Lamb (available at Waitrose). As well as having exceptional flavour, I love the fact that it doesn’t come from too far away. So much of the lamb we see in supermarkets is imported from New Zealand which seems a crying shame when we have so much brilliant produce on our doorstep. Being mindful of where your food comes from, sourcing locally or at the very least seeking out British produce supports our farming industry and saves on air-miles which helps protect our planet – what a win!