I bet the first thing that corssed your mind when you read the title of this recipe was "Antelope?!? Where the hell do I get antelope?! What even is antelope?" For those of you who don't know (and believe me, I had to google it the first time too) this is an antelope:
Cute, huh? I remember seeing these guys on the Discovery Channel galloping across the plains in Africa, but I never imagined one would end up on my plate at the dinner table. That is until our neighbor/hunter dropped by one day with a gift - antelope shanks! Now from what I can gather, this is not going to be an item you can just pick up at your local grocer. It will need to ordered special online, or you will need to hunt one yourself. Saying that, the antelope in this recipe can be easily swapped for lamb and will be just as delicious.
A few things to remember when cooking shanks in a slow cooker:
- Always brown your meat before cooking. This helps to seal in all those yummy juices to make your meal tender and fall-off-the-bone good.
- The longer and slower you can cook shanks, the better. They are a very tough meat, but at a low heat cooked for hours the tissues break down to create the delectable, rich flavour you are craving in anything slow cooked. There is a reason I call for 10 hours on low heat rather than 6 on high heat in this recipe.
- Don't peek mid-way! Every time you lift the lid to stick your nosy little nose in, heat escapes and it can take up to a half hour for things to come back to temperature. This is a set and forget recipe!
Slow Cooked Antelope Shank in a Red Wine Jus
Ingredients
- 4 antelope shanks (if you can't find these, use lamb shanks)
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1 tbs salt
- 1 tbs pepper
- 2 tbs butter
- 2 tbs olive oil
- 1 large onion, diced
- 6 garlic cloves, minced
- 6 oz mushrooms, sliced
- 1 tbs fresh rosemary
- 1 tbs fresh thyme
- 1 tbs flour
- 2 cups red wine
- 2 cups beef broth
Directions
- Step 1 Place your shanks, flour, salt & pepper into a large ziplock bag and shake until coated.
- Step 2 Place butter and olive oil into a pan on medium-high heat. Once the butter is melted, brown your coated shanks on each side. Place into slow cooker.
- Step 3 In the same pan, put your diced onion, minced garlic, mushrooms, rosemary and thyme and saute until your onions are translucent, about 5-7 minutes.
- Step 4 Toss is 1 tbs flour and stir until absorbed and little brown bits start sticking to the bottom of the pan (about 2 more minutes). Deglaze the pan with about 1/4 cup of your red wine.
- Step 5 Place your veggie mixture into the slow cooker. Top with your remaining red wine and beef broth. Cover and cook on low for 10 hours
- Step 6 This meal is best served with a full bodied red wine and mashed potatoes.
