Honey Lamb Shanks

Lamb is always a mystery to me, I feel nervous when I think of buying it.  Even more nervous when I have to figure out how to cook them.  Here's a recipe I made a while ago.  Quite tasty if I do say so myself.

Ingredients: 

4 lamb shanks
6 shallots or 2 onions, peeled and sliced into rings
5 cloves of peeled sliced garlic
1 orange, juiced (grate the rind and set it aside)
1 cup of red wine
1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoon of honey (use regular or brown sugar if you have to)
2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper (can substitute chili powder)
1 cup of chicken stock
rosemary, a few fresh sprigs (can use dried if you need to)
salt and pepper
butter

Directions:
Melt the butter in a skillet on medium heat. Add the lamb shanks and brown them on both sides. Be careful with the heat, you don't want the butter to burn them.
While the lamb is browning, start the slow cooker on low heat with the lid on so it will be warmed up when you add the shanks.


Juice and sauce

After the lamb shanks are browned, leave the juices behind in the skillet and add the shanks to the slow cooker. Place the fresh rosemary on top of them.
Place the orange rind, garlic and onion in the juices left from browning the lamb and sauté until the onions start getting a bit crunchy.
When this happens, add the red wine, Worcestershire sauce, the honey, cayenne pepper, the chicken stock, the salt and pepper to your taste, and the dried rosemary if you didn't use the fresh earlier.
Mix all the ingredients and bring them to a simmer.
After simmering for 5 minutes pour the sauce over the lamb shanks in the slow cooker and cook covered on low for 6 or 7 hours.
When done, remove the cover from the slow cooker and increase the heat level to high.
Continue to cook mixture another hour and a half so that the orange and honey sauce can thicken. Stir ocassionally.
Serve hot!

I made garlic mashed potatoes to go with it!

Stay hungry my friend!