Braised Lamb Shanks - cooking recipe

Ingredients

750 g natural yoghurt (greek)
4 lamb shanks (trimmed or frenched)
salt, freshly ground
fresh ground black pepper
olive oil
1/4 cup white wine
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
2 shallots (french, peeled, thinly sliced)
2 garlic cloves (whole, peeled)
6 sprigs thyme
1 lemon rind (peeled into strips and halved)
5 beads mastic
2 tablespoons honey
2 -3 tablespoons virgin olive oil (extra virgin olive oil)
4 -8 sprigs parsley (flat leaf to serve)

Preparation

Spoon the yoghurt into a fine meshed sieve and place over a bowl, cover and refrigerate overnight to allow esxcess liquid to drain from the yoghurt.
Preheat oven to 165C conventional or 140C fan forced.
Heat a large deep ovenproof frying pan over high heat until hot.
Seaon shanks well with salt and pepper,.
Cover the base of the pan with oil and cook shanks in two batches for 5 minutes, turning until golden all over.
Retrn all shanks to the pan and deglaze the pan wih the wine.
Pour in the chicken stock and then remove the pan from the heat.
Spoon the yoghurt over the lamb to cover.
Scatter over the shallots, garlic, thyme, lemon rind, mastic and drizzle with honey.
Place a cartouche (round of baking paper) onto the surface of the lamb and cover with a tight fitting lid.
Transfer to the oven and cook for 4 hours.
Remove the lid, cartouche and sprigs of thyme.
Carefully transfer the lamb to a warm serving platter and spoon over some of the thick yoghurt on top.
Strain the juices into a saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat.
Squeeze in the juice from half a lemon.
Remove from the heat, insert a stick blender into the sauce and while blending add 2-3 tablespoons of extra virgin oil.
Taste and season with salt and pepper.
Pour the sauce over the lamb, scatter with parsley and serve.