Lamb shanks with rice in Staub cocotte

I finally gave in into temptation and bought another Staub cocotte, a touch larger (20cm) than I already have. I was lucky to get 50% discount in one day sales for an amazing colour. Deboned lamb shanks were the first dish I cooked in it. It is a simple, yet absolutely delicious dish. To make it short it was wonderful. The lamb was fully cooked to be juicy, soft and tender in an hour. I added rice and cooked for another 12 minutes and let it rest for 45 minutes under kitchen towels. Here it is.

I got an impression that this cocotte cooks even better, that the one I already have (18cm), as it retained practically all water during cooking. Next time I have to allow this correction when adding water for rice to get it completely dry as I want it in this particular dish.

Ingredients:

500-600g deboned lamb shanks
2 large carrots
2 onions
5-6 grapes tomatoes
1 long sweet red chilli pepper
1 table spoon olive oil
1 table spoon butter
4 cloves
1 dessert spoon of garlic and chilli homemade preserve
2-3 thyme sticks
pinch of cumin seeds
short grain rice, I used 150ml cup
sea salt and black pepper to taste
water, 3 volumes to rice

Preparation:

cover rice with water and soak it while the meat is cooking, changing water 3-4 times
rinse and drain rice before adding it to the pot
warm oil and butter in any heavy casserole dish
add cumin seeds
slice onion in semi-circles
gently fry onions until translucent
add salt, pepper, garlic and chilli preserve, sliced carrots and sweet chilli pepper
add halved grape tomatoes, stir and cook with lid on for 5-7 minutes
add lamb meat cut in large chucks, meat can be added raw or sealed by fast frying in a separate pan
cover meat and vegetables with water (3 volumes to rice)
cover the pot with lid and cook for 1 hour or until the meat is ready to your liking
add rice, spread it evenly between meat pieces
add cloves and thyme
cook for 12-13 minutes
let the pot rest covered to allow rice to absorb the residual water