Braised lamb shank in red wine with creamed potato

Elvis isn't dead! I saw him near Stratford on Avon on 31 October.

Well two of him actually, along with Diana Ross (a 1969 version), Scooby Doo, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and a whole host of other characters. We were cooking for a fancy dress birthday party at The Boathouse on 31 October. A week later we were back at the same venue, this time cooking for an anniversary. The couple had invited all their closest friends who had been at the wedding, and requested a re-creation of their wedding breakfast menu (as cooked by another chef). As most of the events we cook for are special occasions we always like to cook whatever guests would like.

Starter:

Fish cakes with cucumber salsa

Main: (as discussed)

Lamb shank on bed of mashed potato – 1 salmon en croute

Gravy/Jus

French beans with red onion

Glazed chantenay carrots

Desert:

Apple Pie with vanilla ice cream and pouring cream

Lamb shanks were the pork belly of the late 90's - the thing that every restaurant had on their menu. They need slow moist cooking - around 3 - 4 hours minimum - till the meat is tender and almost falling from the bone, and the sauce is rich and seriously tasty. When we used to cook them at Charingworth Manor back in '97/ '98 they were £1.00 each - so the accountant was very happy too. These days however, since they became so popular they are more like £3.00 each. It had been rather too many years since I had last cooked lamb shanks, but just as I was getting ready to cook them @britishfood posted a recipe here which refreshed the memory. I did a much similar thing, though used a whole bottle of wine used carrots and celery as well, and lamb stock rather than beef. Also thickened the sauce after the shanks were cooked with a little cornflour (I use cornflour instead of beurre manie just in case of gluten/ wheat free guests).

It was another busy Saturday with 2 other events going on elsewhere, so in the rush to pack everything up I didn't pack the camera, hence the only photo I got was the apple pie just fresh from the oven after cooking (above), and the lamb shank (right) taken at 2:30am on the Sunday morning, after I had returned to base and cleared up. I always like to do one spare in case the number suddenly goes up at the last minute, a guest having something else changes their mind, or one gets dropped/ damaged. The version we had served 6 hours previously looked more spruced up of course.

If you want the perfect apple pie recipe there's a link here - the pastry is the best ever!