Deconstructed lamb shanks – the Italian version

A dish of lovely rich lamb shanks, with a warming sauce, nestled up to smooth garlic mash is just delicious.  But if you make a huge supply of lamb shanks, then some variety is needed!  I have several options when faced with this dilemma - one is to head for Morroco via a tagine, the other is to turn to Italy for inspiration.

Italian lamb shanks

Previously prepared deconstructed lamb shanks (½ portion of the full recipe)

1 tin tomato passata (pureed and sieved tomatoes)
½ punnet cherry tomatoes
Basil pesto
Mozzarella cheese
Pasta – preferably pappadelle, but lasanga will also do

Take the frozen portion of lamb shanks out of the freezer a day ahead.   Once defrosted, add ½ - 1 tin of tomato passata, and reheat at 150 C for 1 hour.  Add about ½ punnet of halved cherry tomatoes and cook for another 10 mins, while you cook the pasta.

Here's one I prepared earlier!

Drain the pasta, reserving some of the pasta water.  Add to the lamb, along with a small amount of the cooking water if the sauce needs to loosen up a bit.  Cover with sliced fresh mozzarella and pop under the grill until the cheese is melted. 

Serve with a generous dollop of basil pesto.

Deconstructed lamb shanks

I love lamb shanks - lovely comforting winter food, cooked long and slow to deliver flavour-filled tender lamb.  However, I find a plate with a whole lamb shank a rather daunting prospect - almost too much to eat, as well as logistically challenging.  So I've taken to deconstructing them, and either serving them traditionally (with mashed potato) or re-invented as an Italian dish [recipe here].

 

Deconstructed lamb shanks

Serves 6-10, depending on the size of the appetites

6 lamb shanks (or a mix of lamb shanks and lamb knuckles)

Spiced flour – ½ C flour with selected spices added – could be 1 tbsp paprika plus salt and pepper, or Moroccan style, Cajun style, whatever you feel like
1 onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
2 C red or white wine
1 C beef or lamb stock
1 tin tomatoes
Garlic – to taste, I usually go with about 6 cloves, sliced
Thyme, about 1 tbsp roughly chopped leaves (although if the prospect of de-stemming the little devils is too much, I just throw a handful of thyme in and fish the stalks out later)
Rosemary, about 1 tbsp roughly chopped leaves

You can see that this is a cooking frenzy day - lamb shanks in the background, blade steak in the foreground.

Toss the lamb shanks in spiced flour.  Heat a large saucepan and brown the lamb shanks in olive oil.

Place the browned shanks in the cooking dish, along with the thyme and rosemary.

Add another ½ tbsp. of oil to the pan, and cook the onion until just softened.  Add the carrot and celery and cook, stirring for a couple of minutes. 

Add the sliced garlic and cook until the smell hits you.  Add the wine and allow to bubble ferociously for about 1 minute, before adding the tomatoes and stock.  Heat through and pour over the lamb shanks.

The shanks can be cooked in a slow cooker (4 hours on high), or in a covered dish in the oven (2 hours, 160 C).  Turn once during cooking.  At the end of the cooking time, the meat should be coming off the bone, but not cooked to the stage where they can be cut with a spoon – they will be getting some more cooking after deconstruction…

Cool.  Then prepare for some mess… Take each shank out of the sauce and remove the meat from the bone, cutting into rough chunks.  Combine with the sauce.  At this stage, you can put into the dish for final cooking and serving, or it will happily go into the freezer.  I split it in two, one to eat and one to keep.

For a traditional lamb shank dinner, reheat at 150 C for 1 hour.  Taste and adjust for seasoning – I will usually add a good tablespoon of red currant jelly, the juice of a lemon (to counter some of the richness) and some salt and pepper at this stage.

Serve with garlic mashed potatoes and just-cooked green vegetables.

 

First, Catch Your Turkey

I grew up in the country, which meant that my first experiences of turkey involved wild turkeys.  Wild turkeys are generally fairly large, bony birds with a gamey flavour and a tendency to dry out on cooking (not to mention that they arrive intact, feathers and all).  They don’t roast particularly well, and are usually boned out or casseroled.

I’ve only ever cooked bought turkey a couple of times and have been lulled into thinking that they can be treated like chickens.  Despite experimenting with brining, I have been vaguely dissatisfied with the results – too dry and lacking any depth of flavour. 

I recently found myself gazing into the local butcher’s freezer at his supply of turkeys… and before I knew it, the smallest size turkey was coming home with me.  I spent my time on the bus to work thinking about my problems with cooking turkey, and eventually came to the conclusion that the turkey would benefit from braising.  So what does one do when faced with a turkey dilemma?  Turn to the experts!  One little search on the interweb and I discovered a Mr Michael Ruhlman, and his braised turkey recipe.  There wasn't a lot I could do to improve on it, so here it is, with a few little adjustments!

Tender Braised Turkey

1 turkey (that will fit in your braising dish – mine was around 3.5kg)

1 lemon, quartered
2-3 cups white wine
1-2 litres chicken stock
1-2 carrots, roughly chopped
1-2 onions, roughly chopped
2 stalks celery, roughly chopped (including leaves)
Handful of fresh parsley, thyme and oregano sprigs
Salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 200 C.

Place the lemon inside the turkey, along with some of the herbs and some onion.  Place the turkey into the braising dish, along with all other ingredients (I only add a pinch of salt at this stage and adjust at the end).  The liquid should be covering about 2/3 of the turkey.

Place into the oven, uncovered.  After 15 minutes, turn down to 180 C.  Baste with cooking liquid about every 15 minutes.  After 1 hour, remove from oven and rest for 5 minutes. It should be nicely browned.

Carefully remove the breast, including the ribcage.  To do this, I used a sharp knife to cut diagonally from the neck across the top of the wings, and then used kitchen scissors to cut around the sides of the breast and lift it off.  Cover the breast and rest.

Return the braising dish to the oven, with the remaining parts of the turkey submerged in the braising liquid.  Cook for another 30 minutes.  Remove the turkey from the braising liquid and scoop out all the flavouring vegetables (I didn't sieve the liquid as I like to have a slightly rustic gravy).  Skim off any visible fat.  Bring the braising liquid to a boil for 5 minutes, then add 1 tbsp cornflour dissolved in a little water, and stir until thickened.  Taste the gravy and adjust to taste – some redcurrant jelly (or cranberry) for sweetness, salt and pepper. Remove from the heat.

Joint the legs and wings and place in the gravy.  Remove the breast meat from the bones, slice, and place in the gravy.  We served it straight away, but it would easily keep for another 30 minutes on a very slow element, or in the turned-off oven.

Serve with potatoes and green vegetables.

Leftovers freeze well in the gravy, and make for a delicious emergency dinner on rice with vegetables!