Oranges and Lemons...Citrus-Braised Lamb Shanks

After a couple of things which were neither one thing nor the other, I thought I was due a success a) by the law of averages and b) by starting with more promising ingredients. Approaching the weekend without having already picked a new recipe, I once more chose to get something from the butcher's first and decide what to do with it later. This time, however, the intrinsic dullness of chicken breasts was fresh in my mind, so I suggested lamb shanks: a cut I have never gone wrong with, mainly because as long as you allow a good three hours cooking time, going wrong with lamb shanks is practically impossible.

This usual, and foolproof, method involves browning the meat, then adding it to a liquid which can consist of one or more of lamb stock, red wine, beer or water, along with other ingredients including, but not limited to, onion, carrot, any root vegetables which are handy, thyme or other suitable herb, and barley. Put that in a low oven for three hours and you generally end up with superbly tender meat and a rich gravy which is very much part of the dish (this is definitely a meal best served in deep bowls).

As a change, then, I picked out a suggestion from the River Cottage Meat book, for Citrus-Braised Lamb Shanks. The cooking method is the same - brown the meat, semi-immerse in cooking liquid, place in low oven for two or three hours, perfect for a weekend evening - but the difference is in the flavouring. I started by dicing onion, carrot and celery, which I softened gently in some olive oil; so far, so traditional. Then, however, I added the zest and juice of an orange and a lemon, followed by white wine and lamb stock.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall obviously has a cooker calibrated rather higher than ours, as his suggestion of Gas Mark 1/2 for two and a half hours struck me as being a bit on the ineffectual side. I turned the heat up (admittedly only to Gas Mark 2) which is what I'd normally do, and it was fine; at lower heat I'm sure it would have cooked to even greater tenderness, but we'd have been eating it for breakfast.

The end result was interesting; as I suggested, in our household lamb shanks have always been something unpretentious, slow-cooked and substantial, served in a big bowl of gravy, very much the sort of dish that seems just right for a Sunday night when there's snow on the ground. This was far more like a restuarant or dinner party dish - I served it on large plates, with lots of buttered mashed potato, and a large puddle of the cooking sauce, which was as promised, zesty and zingy, and possibly other things beginning with z, if perhaps not quite the sort of thing you'd want to eat by the spoonful or mop up with bread. However, it was also the sort of slow cooking that might seem even better if done for dinner at the end of a long summer day. I guess I'll have to wait and see if we have such a thing this year...