Russelnod.com

Serves 6

Lamb shanks are always available at Whole Foods Market in Hadley and often in the other local supermarkets as well. A serving is one shank per person. Yes, it is a production, but it is delicious and worth the effort. It is a perfect dish for entertaining, since you get it ready before your guests arrive. It can sit for while, if necessary.

I usually cook the dish in a large turkey-roasting pan.

6 lamb shanks
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
1 bottle red wine (Merlot, Cabernet, Syrah or Zinfandel)
6 to 8 cups chicken stock
2 heads garlic
4 ribs celery
8 large carrots
2 large onions
1 pound mushrooms
Several sprigs fresh rosemary or 1 teaspoon dried

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Trim any fat from the lamb. Heat the oil in a frying pan over high heat. Brown the shanks, 3 or 4 at a time, over medium-high heat. As they are done, transfer them to the roasting pan. Take your time with this step. The results will be worth it.

Using ½ cup of stock, deglaze the frying pan and add the liquid to the roasting pan.

While the meat is cooking, prepare the vegetables: Cut each rib of the celery in half. Peel 4 of the carrots and cut into halves or thirds. Remove the loose, papery skin from the garlic bulbs and slice the bulbs in half crosswise. Remove the stems from the mushrooms. Reserve the mushroom caps separately from the stems.

Tuck the bay leaves, rosemary, carrots, celery and mushroom stems around the meat. Sprinkle with the peppercorns. Add the bottle of wine and enough stock to cover the meat. Bring to a boil on the stove. Place in the oven uncovered and cook for 2 hours, or until the meat is tender and almost falling off the bone. Turn several times during the cooking. The liquid will cook down. Add some stock if necessary.

When the meat is done, remove to a plate and cover to keep warm. Strain the liquid into a 2-quart pot. Keep 1 cooked carrot and 1 of the garlic heads. Degrease the liquid if necessary. Simmer until reduced by a third. Peel and cut the remaining carrots into 1-inch chunks and cook in the broth until done. Saute the mushroom caps in a little butter until cooked. Add whatever liquid is in the mushrooms to the sauce, but reserve the cooked mushrooms.

Squeeze the reserved garlic cloves into a small bowl and add the reserved carrot. Mash well and add some of the sauce to make a paste. Add to the simmering sauce and stir. This will help to thicken it without additional flour.

To serve: Place the lamb shanks in a large tureen, bowl or slope-sided platter. Place the sauteed mushrooms and carrot chunks around the sides and pour some of the sauce over the platter. Serve the rest of the sauce on the side. This is good with garlic-smashed potatoes, mashed white bean puree, mashed potatoes or baked potatoes.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 at 7:21 am and is filed under Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.