Lamb Shanks

Braised lamb shanks are a delicious, fork tender meat that take well to a variety of seasonings. My batch on Saturday had a Moroccan flavor, as I braised them in red wine, orange juice and a spice packet consisting of ground cardamom seeds, cumin, and smoked paprika. An orange gremolata completed the dish. I served it with quinoa. For once I was grateful for a cold spell.

While they take about two hours to cook, actual prep time is about 20-30 minutes. I had some leftover cooking broth that went into the best batch of harira yet...\

Allow a shank per person.

Braised Lamb Shanks Recipe:

Heavily salt and pepper two shanks and set aside. Preheat oven to 300.

Heat olive oil in an oven-proof pan that can be covered and brown shanks on all sides, about 5 minutes. Remove shanks.

In same pan, saute a chopped onion, diced carrot, and chopped celery stalk, about 5 minutes. Add a couple of cloves of chopped garlic and some chopped ginger.

Deglaze pan with some red wine, then return shanks to pan. Add enough wine, stock or water, and orange juice to cover (or almost cover) the shanks. Cover and place in oven, turning the shanks every 30 minutes for two hours, at which point the lamb will be fork tender.

Remove cooked shanks from pan and strain the juice, discarding the solids. I put half this rich stock aside, and reduced the rest to about a cup, whisking in a tablespoon of cold butter before serving.

I served each shank on a bed of quinoa, though rice or couscous would work, and drizzled it with sauce and finished it with an orange gremolata:

Finely chop a bunch of parsley. Add a clove of finely chopped garlic, and the finely diced rind of half an orange.