How To Braise

I am going to show you how to braise which is incredibly simple. Braising is really slow cooking and I can think of nothing better to braise than a lamb shank. There is a pan on the go here.

I've just put some olive oil in there. I am going to add, for a bit of extra flavor, some onion, a few chopped carrots, some thyme, and a bay leaf. It would be quite nice to have some rosemary lying around, because I am doing lamb and the combination is very good.

I've got my lamb shank here and that is going to go in the pan as well. I've got some stock here. I'm going to take that off the boiler and I am going to cover the ingredients with that stock.

Just come in and have a look. It is almost covered, but not quite. I am just going to finish the job off.

Now, those ingredients are completely covered. Ordinarily, you would have a lid to your pan, but I don't, so I am just going to put some tinfoil over the top. If you don't have tinfoil, you can use clay film or even a damp tea towel.

If you do use a tea towel, make sure the ends are not dripping over the side or hanging over the side. Obviously, they will catch a lit. This is going to go back on the hole, just bring it up to a gentle simmer.

I'll then transfer that pan together into the oven. From that point onwards, you are going to cook, or braise, that shank for probably an hour and a half. Just to reiterate, all braising really is slow cooking with liquid, preferably a stock, in the oven.

That is probably going to work quite nicely, it is at a gentle simmer. Take it off the hole and that simply will now go in the oven for about an hour and a half. When that comes out, it will be beautifully braised.

That has been in there for a bit longer now, actually probably two hours. So, out, it comes. That, as you can see, is beautifully braised.

Just to emphasize the point, what I am going to do is demonstrate that it just falls off the bone, which is exactly what you want. What I am going to do is just slice this up and add some of the veg and the cooking juices in this dish, just for the finishing show. Now, you know how to braise.

It is just putting meat in liquid, bringing it up to the boil, finishing it off in the oven with a cover on, and letting it slow cook for hours at a time. .