braised lamb shanks

By happy coincidence, Conrad was going to be late home from work and I was called on to coach tonight. I say happy because I had lamb shanks thawed, ready to cook for dinner. Meat that benefits from a long cooking. Wonderful.

They were, in fact, wonderful. Rich. Meltingly tender. I rubbed them with olive oil, thyme, some of my coarse fennel and saffron salt, and pepper, then browned them up a bit. Once browned, they went into a roasting pan, and I tossed chopped garlic and finely diced onion into the pan to soften. To this I added some white Alsace wine, chicken broth, and capers. When it came to a low boil, I removed it from the heat, poured it over the shanks, covered the roaster, and popped it all into a 350 degree oven.

Half an hour later, before I headed to the pool, I turned the shanks over in the liquid and said my goodbyes.

An hour and a half later I got off the elevator on our floor and was lovingly assaulted by the fragrance of the lamb, filling the hallway and tempting Conrad when he came home about 45 minutes later. I had turned the heat down by this point. When he went down to the gym for a quick treadmill, I strained out a bunch of the liquid, added some white wine jelly to sweeten it a touch, tossed in some capers, and let it reduce a bit. Very rich, even if I did de-fat it some.

By the time Conrad was done his shower, it was time for dinner. We enjoyed the remnants of the Alsace wine and barely needed a knife to handle the meat. On the side I set a simple little salad of fava beans, walnuts, feta, and a bit of tomato. Nope, no one going hungry at our place!