Braised Lamb Shank

Ohh, lamb. I grew up never eating lamb because 5/6 members of my immediate family thought it was gross. I finally stopped whining long enough to taste it, and my life was forever changed. Now the lamb-lovers in my family number 3/6 (me, my sister, my dad)- not a bad improvement from just 1!

Since I've been staying at my parents' house as a mini vacation for the last two weeks, and since my dad, my sister and I don't usually get the chance to eat it (it's not fun cooking all day for yourself!), we've made this dish twice in 12 days. Too much saturated fat, you say? Probably.

Lamb shanks are delicious, especially when cooked like this. The bone marrow adds a rich unctuousness to the tomato sauce, and perfumes the whole stew with a lamb-y taste. Lamb shank is probably not the least gamey of cuts, and this dish has pretty concentrated flavors, so keep that in mind if serving it to the lamb-naive.

Braised Lamb Shank

(Serves 4-6 as an entree)

Ingredients:
:: 4 lamb shanks, total 3.5-4 pounds, rinsed, and patted dry
:: 1/2 cup flour (optional)
:: 8 cloves garlic, chopped
:: 3 carrots, cut into fourths
:: 3 stalks celery, cut into fourths
:: 1 1/2 onion, chopped into 1 inch pieces
:: 28 oz. canned whole peeled tomatoes (preferably San Marzano)
:: 2 cups red wine
:: 3 cups water
:: 1 tall stockpot
:: 2 sprigs rosemary
:: 10-15 sprigs thyme

This is obviously pre-food prep stage. The thyme and rosemary are sitting on top of the "spice sack" I use to keep my herbs separated from the actual edible portions of the dish. The spice sack is a glorified cotton bag with a drawstring that you can just throw into the pot.

Throw the celery and carrots into a food processor or blender with just enough water to keep the blade from blending air. You'll have a slurry like this, but with hopefully less water than my enthusiasm resulted in.

Liberally salt and pepper the shanks and dust them in a light coat of flour. You can skip the flour step, but I like the way it helps to brown the meat.




In a wide pan, add a tablespoon or so of oil, just enough to keep the lamb from sitting on any dry spots. Brown about 3 minutes on each side. Be patient! I don't mean "give the meat a tan", I mean brown it! Set it aside while you cook the veggies.









Cook the carrot slurry and garlic in 1 tablespoon of oil until the liquid is cooked out.






Add in the onions with another tablespoon of oil and saute for a while. You want the vegetables to start to caramelize and brown. Hopefully you can see little specks of brown forming in this picture.


Add in the tomatoes and red wine. Cook about 15 minutes or until the sauce is somewhat reduced (I can never tell how much "reduce by half" really means...). Now, I am typically not a tomato snob, but when making a special dinner like this where the flavors become concentrated, I think it's worth the splurge for San Marzano tomatoes. I don't know how they're different, except for that they are from Italy and are many times more delicious than normal tomatoes (which I choose 99% of the time over San Marzanos purely for cost reasons.)

This is where you can add in other "spices" besides thyme and rosemary. I was rummaging through the pantry when I found a lamb rub I had made for father's day a couple years ago. (yeah, yeah, I know, throw your spices out after 6 months.....)

I wish I remembered what went into it but it was some combination of coriander, cumin, allspice, salt, pepper, garlic, cinnamon, and nutmeg that I had run through a coffee grinder. Those are at least the ingredients that I recall. Adding these obviously changes the flavor of the dish a lot and makes it taste more Moroccan in flavor, but using the thyme and rosemary as stand alone spices is great, also!



Now you'll need the large stockpot. You will want to cover the lamb shanks with liquid and since they are so long, cooking 4 requires a tall pot. You could probably get away with a 4-qt saucepan if cooking 2 shanks, but remember that not only must you be able to jam them in, but you will also need to cover them with a lid. I had no rulers lying around, so the most standard unit of measure I could come up with is that I used a stockpot at least 1.5 McDonald's Apple Pies tall. Throw the lamb in the pot and pour the tomato mixture over it. The shanks will be sticking out of the liquid.

Cover the shanks with water, about 3 cups. Throw in your thyme and rosemary.

Pop the lid on, and into a 400 degree oven it goes. You can check up on it every hour or so if you, like me, have an insatiable curiosity to see how your food is looking. Cook it for about 3 hours, or until its tenderness is to your liking.

Tada! I ate mine today with sun-dried tomato and toasted pine nut quinoa, because sometimes I do like to eat healthy things :)