Personal review: Aldi's lamb shank in mint gravy

Disclaimer:  I'm not being paid or rewarded in anyway for reviewing food products such as this.  I bought it myself with my own money and there's no pressure from anyone or anywhere to be overly positive (or negative).

This is part of a small range of lamb shanks in gravy.  you buy it frozen and it is cooked from frozen,  In the box you get two boil in bags, each with one shank in some gravy and each portion provides a good amount of meat and sauce for one (two of them did three of us nicely).

You can either boil them in the bag for about 45 minutes or you can microwave them (singly).  I did the former.

I found the meat itself flavoursome and very tender, easy to cut with a spoon.  I picked as much as I could off the bones, an easy task as it more or less fell off, and the bits that remain will go out for the birds in the morning.

The gravy was a little bit fatty so I did the ice cube trick to solidify the fat (not an awful lot really, it wasn't unpleasantly fatty) and skim it off.  Then I added half a lamb stock cube and a slurp of marmite and it was a very delicious gravy with some left for the freezer.

I was surprised how lean it was and the SW syns reflect this - two syns per shank.  I assume that is when you discard all the fatty bits and skim any fat off the gravy as I did - that tends to be the SW rule.  It made a delicious meal with home made mash, cabbage and carrots and, while not the cheapest thing in the world (£2.50 per shank), it's great for the occasional treat when the cost of a leg, and the amount you get, makes a roast lamb dinner out of common sense reach for singles and small families.

I'm glad I have still a couple of shanks in a red wine gravy in the freezer and will definitely be getting another box of what we had this evening.  Well worth the freezer space!

If you try it, I'd be glad to know what you think too.

Later addition:  The one in red wine gravy is also very, very nice.