Braised Veal + Lamb Shanks Pie

Published : June 28, 2015

A delicious winter warming meal.

Ingredients

Plain flour (for dusting)
Salt & pepper
4 Veal Shanks
4 Lamb Shanks (or 8 lamb shanks if veal shanks not available
1 Onion
1 Carrot
1 Celery stick
1 Leek (halved lengthwise and washed)
½ cup olive oil
5 cloves garlic
Several sprigs of rosemary
Several sprigs of thyme
3 tablespoons Italian tomato paste
400ml red wine
1-2 litres of beef stock
1 sheet of ready-made short crust pastry
1 sheet of ready-made puff pastry

Method

Press the short crust pastry into pie tin. Blind bake the pastry until lightly golden.
Pre-heat the oven to 160C. Season the flour with salt & pepper and lightly coat the shanks, shaking to remove the excess.
Peel and dice the onion, carrot, celery and leek into 1cm pieces.
Heat olive oil in a heavy-based frying pan. Add the shanks and seal them in the pan well. Transfer them into a large flameproof casserole once they are brown.
Once the shanks are out, add the diced vegetables with the garlic and herbs mix into the pan and cook until golden. Add the tomato paste and cook for 5 minutes. Spoon this mixture over the meat in the casserole dish.
Deglaze the pan with wine, stirring to loosen the sediment, and pour this mixture over the casserole.
Add enough stock to the casserole to cover the contents and bring to the boil.
Cover the casserole with lid or foil and bake for 1.5 hours or until the meat is tender and pulling away from the bone. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the stock.
Once cool carefully remove meat from the bones, discarding any fat or sinews.
Strain the stock and reduce to a rich glossy sauce. Pour the sauce back with the shank meat.
Place this mixture into the partially cooked short-crust pastry case, then place puff pastry over the top to form a lid. Trim and seal the edges to complete the pie.
Bake in the oven at 180C for 10 minutes until golden.