The Long and Short of Balsamic Lamb Shanks Sous Vide

I had a note from a guy recently suggesting that I forego all the “unneeded stories and waffle” and just publish recipes. He was reasonably complementary about my recipes. So, in the interest of brevity, here’s the recipe for these delicious Sous Vide Lamb Shanks.

Ingredients

• 3 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 sprigs rosemary
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 twists black pepper

Cooking instructions

• 62/48
• Brown in the oven
• Add cornstarch and water to bag juice and reduce for gravy

But, when I leave out all the waffle, I don’t get the opportunity to tell you about how to use a cheap vacuum sealer to close a bag with liquid in. I also don’t get the opportunity to stress the importance of great ingredients. (I had another chap give out about one of my recipes recently. It was obvious to me that he had used meat that was just shy of festering.) So, here’s the ingredients shot.

Top class ingredients including 12 year aged Balsamic. Worth the writing, I assure you.

The lamb shanks are as good as one can get, from County Wicklow mountain lamb. I cycle through the Wicklow Mountains regularly and probably saw the sheep who donated these on my travels.

To vacuum seal the ingredients, we need to make the balsamic a bit more viscous. I achieved this by putting it in the freezer for a few hours. It didn’t freeze but did get a fair deal more sticky and viscous.

Many would see no point is showing this shot. That balsamic will thicken nicely in the freezer.

Place the ingredients into the vacuum bag and close the vacuum sealer over the open end. Hang the bag over the side of the work surface. Turn on the vacuum. The bag should seal before the thickened balsamic gets sucked to the sealing element. It’s a good trick and it works.

It’s hard to be brief about this vacuum method.

Place the bag in the sous vide for 48 hours at 62ºC. Brown them off in a very hot oven for about ten minutes. Save the bag juices. Add them to a saucepan and mix in a slurry of about a teaspoon and a half of cornflour and a tablespoon and a half of water. Keep the garlic in there for more flavour too.

The gravy really ties the dish together. Take the bit of time to get it right.

Taste and season as you see fit. This will make a delicious gravy. When it is thickened and seasoned, it is ready to serve.

If I were to trim back the posts, there would be no pouring shots. I love a good pouring shot.

Then serve the lovely lamb shanks with some oven roasted thyme and rosemary potatoes. Sprinkle on some parsley for a nice photo. Pour over the gravy in the same way as you have poured over my recipe. Enjoy.