a little zaftig » Lamb

Braised Lamb Shanks

Laura — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 00:16:43 +0000

My grandma was a letter writer. I have sheaves of her letters, all typed and on thin, pale green paper. They detail the buses she took, and in what weather, to the bank, to Mass, to help with the church rummage sale; the breakfasts and lunches and dinners she ate—toast with butter or peanut butter, an egg over easy, a half sandwich, coffee with sugar. I can see her at her desk in my grandparents’ little den, typing quickly and with erect posture, slipping in a piece of correction paper for a letter mistyped, sipping weak coffee from a Corian cup. It seemed natural to me, then, to begin writing letters when I was 18 and starting college. I wrote to my extended family here and there, and then, with some gusto, to my husband’s after we met and married, to friends, and then to my daughter when she went away some eleven hundred miles to college. In the years we lived in England and Japan there were sometimes pages and pages, unopened and sitting on the coffee table when I visited my parents-in-law months later. I didn’t mind. I was happy to record those details, to remember, and to send them off. And sometimes, over years collected in order and tucked away, the letters have become such a lovely record. I have a friendship in letters with my dear friend Susie, another letter writer. We lived in the same building in England for four short months, but we’ve written to each other for twenty-five years. In our house, now, I have a file of my grandma’s letters, and one for Susie’s, lined up like paper soldiers, and a box of all the correspondence between me and my husband—from the first birthday cards we exchanged 27 years ago to long letters written while we were apart: funny, romantic, newsy, the details long forgotten until I open one and am surprised by them and by our youth. And last year my Honey Girl published a book of the letters I wrote to her during her first year of college, more than 200 pages of long-distance love, equally surprising in its bound state. I started this blog as a kind of letter, too.

It occurs to me that letter writing is an old fashioned thing now. I suppose my style of cooking is, too. These lamb shanks are in our regular rotation and one of my favorite things to cook and eat, but it seems they have gone out of fashion, despite the seeming trend in countrified food styling and farmer-centric cooking. When I made these most recently, I had to go to three butchers to gather five shanks. “No one buys them anymore,” all three butchers told me with varying degrees of sadness. If you have never braised lamb shanks, bookmark this and drive wherever you need to to procure some. They are some of the best eating, relatively simple to cook, impossible to spoil, cook largely unattended until you are ready for them, and reheat beautifully.

Because I’m loath to interrupt my life for the blog, I don’t often post savory recipes. Once dinner is ready, I don’t want to wait to share it. I can’t imagine puttering around while the food gets cold. Cooking, for me, is an act of service. It’s pleasurable, sure, but in the end it’s about the people I love. And food photography is a tinkery little beast—a quarter inch here, a quarter inch there—and I don’t have a permanent set-up. I lug a little table in from the backyard, wipe off the snow or rain or dust, and pull out my tripod and camera and mat boards from the office whenever I want to photograph something. I can make breakfast while my family are sleeping or fry up a handful of pancakes after we’re done eating together. And I can bake up a dessert while everyone is away at work and at school or in the evening while homework is tended to. A stack of crispy French toast or a coffee cake already photographed and ready as you walk in the door after school? Well, that’s usually greeted with a certain amount of glee. And I never have to delay shared pleasure for the tedium of photography. So I feel I should offer a little apology to this lamb, which is so poorly represented by these photographs, and to you. These shanks are beautiful when they emerge from the oven. But I ate most of my shank and what remained sat, lonesome in the pot, until I photographed it today. All of the gorgeous brown bits of meat have been picked off and eaten greedily. It looks rather sad today. So imagine a lovely, browned shank with lots of tender meat. In short, don’t let these photographs put you off the dish. Like old letters, it’s a keeper.

Braised Lamb Shanks
Yield: 5 generous servings if you serve the shanks whole, or about 8 servings if you separate meat from bone and serve the dish as a soup; both are equally nice, though the soup makes for a more casual meal

Ingredients:
5 lamb shanks*
3 medium fennel bulbs, diced
4 medium carrots, peeled and diced
2 medium leeks, white and pale green parts diced and rinsed thoroughly
5 large cloves of garlic, minced
2 medium fresh tomatoes (in late summer) or 14 ounces drained whole plum tomatoes, seeded, and diced
28 ounces great northern beans, drained and rinsed or 2 c. dried beans soaked overnight in cold water and drained
6 c. chicken stock (homemade or Swanson’s organic)
salt and pepper

*If you can find pasture-raised lamb, it’s worth the price.

Method:

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees F.

Dry the lamb shanks well and season them fairly generously with salt and pepper on all sides.

Heat a large enameled cast iron pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat.

When it is hot, drizzle in a bit of olive oil.

Place the lamb shanks into the pan and allow them to sear and brown. If they do not fit without crowding, you will need to sear them in batches. Do not crowd the pan. Do not disturb them or be tempted to peek at them as they brown. They will pull away easily when they are ready.

Rotate the shanks, allowing them to brown well before turning again, until all sides are nicely seared and deep brown. This will take about 30 minutes. Time invested in browning enriches the broth and adds tremendous flavor.

Remove the shanks from the pan and place them on a large dinner plate. Allow them to rest at room temperature.

Pour off almost all of the rendered fat from the pan.

Add the fennel, carrot, and leek and season them with a bit of salt and pepper. Saute the vegetables, stirring them occasionally, until the fennel has given off some liquid and the liquid has evaporated, and until the vegetables are beginning to soften and take on a bit of color. As they sauté use a wooden spoon to scrape the browned bits from the bottom and sides of the pan.

Add the garlic and stir for one minute.

Add the tomatoes and beans and stir them into the pot.

Nestle the lamb shanks into the vegetables. This works best if they are placed in a tight row with the narrowest side up.

Cover the shanks with stock. It’s okay if a couple of inches of meat remain above the line of the stock. Season the stock with a bit of salt and pepper and cover the pot.

Allow the stock to come to a simmer.

Transfer the covered pot to your oven. Braise the lamb shanks in the oven until the meat is extremely tender and pulls easily or falls from the bone, about two hours.

Taste the stock and adjust the seasoning, if necessary.

At this point you may either serve the lamb shanks whole or as a soup.

To serve the shanks whole, place a shank on a soup plate for each diner and ladle over some of the stock, beans, and vegetables. To serve as a soup, allow the dish to cool a bit until you are able to handle the meat without getting burned. Transfer each lamb shank to a large cutting board; one with a well at its edges is most convenient for this task. Pull the meat from the bone, pull away any sinew and fat, and cut or pull the meat into smaller pieces. Transfer the meat back to the pot and stir it into the soup.

This dish may be prepared a day or two before you wish to serve it. Warm it on the stove over low heat until the stock comes to a simmer before serving.

If I prepare this for the family, we inevitably have leftover lamb on each of our shanks. I pick the meat from the bones and add it to the soup for the next day.

Lamb Stew

Laura — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 14:05:33 +0000

The birds returned to Minnesota two weeks ago, on a day when the temperature was negative one. They are the first harbingers of spring for me, when the world still feels impossibly cold for birds, and it’s hard to imagine little green blades rising through the frozen earth. Now their twitter tweet-tweet-tweet is a morning reminder that the world will thaw and those green shoots will appear. So because it’s still winter in Minnesota. And because our favorite Turkish hole-in-the-wall, where we used to enjoy such a stew, up and disappeared. And because my Honey Girl is home from college. And because little Annie and I are a little batty after months inside the house. And because my sweet butcher Greg cubed some lovely lamb shoulder for me… I made a lamb stew to celebrate impending spring! Now, how do I know that little Annie, our ginger terrier, is feeling a little batty, too? Because she perches on the arm of a chair in my office and looks longingly outside. Then she looks at me. And stares. When it’s winter here, our walks are brief, and some days it’s simply too cold to go out. We’re both ready for a long walk, for puddles and mud and brief sink-baths for cold, dirty paws. I know, Annie, it’s time, it’s time. Hurry up, Spring!

Lamb Stew Tips
Lamb shoulder is a fattier cut with more flavor. Leg of lamb is leaner. Choose one or a combination according to your preference.

When you sear the lamb, do not overcrowd the pan. There should be a little space between each piece of lamb. If the pan is full, the lamb will steam rather than brown. A good brown crust on the lamb will add tremendous flavor to the stew, so don’t rush this step. You will likely have to sear the lamb in batches.

Do not peek at the lamb while it sears. You will smell it and see its brown crust at the edges when it is ready. If it sticks to the pan, it’s not ready.

Fond is the browned meat essence (fat, sugars, proteins…) that forms on the bottom of a pan. It is one of the keys to a delicious stew.

Do not use cooking wine in this (or any) recipe. Use something tasty you would drink.

Lamb Stew
Yield: about 12 servings

Ingredients:
2 pounds cubed lamb shoulder or leg
1 large onion, diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 green pepper, diced
1 red pepper, diced
2 small eggplants, cubed
4 carrots, peeled and diced
1 T. dried oregano
1 c. white wine
28 ounces crushed tomatoes (I prefer Bio Naturae brand.)
14 ounces diced tomatoes
28 ounces tinned chick peas
3 c. chicken stock (recipe here or Swanson’s organic)
salt and pepper
olive oil for the pan

Method:

Season the meat well with salt and pepper.

Heat a large Dutch oven over medium high heat. When it is hot drizzle in some olive oil. When it is hot, add the lamb in a single layer. Do not crowd the pan.

Sear the lamb until it has a deep brown crust. Turn over the lamb and sear the other side. Transfer the browned lamb from the pan to a plate and sear the next batch.

Spoon out the excess fat and discard it.

Lower the heat a bit and add the onions to the pan. Season them with a little salt and pepper. Sauté them, scraping up the fond on the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon.

Add the garlic and stir for one minute.

Add the rest of the fresh vegetables and the oregano and sauté for a few minutes.

Add the wine and scrape all of the fond from the bottom and sides of the pan.

Add the tomatoes, chick peas, and chicken stock and cover the pot. Raise the heat and bring the stew to a boil. Reduce the heat immediately to the lowest possible setting and simmer at a low burble for about an hour to an hour and a half, or until the lamb is very tender. If the stew is not thick enough, remove the lid and simmer a little longer.

Taste the stew and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

Thin Crust Pizza with Shepherd’s Way Farms’ Friesago, Shepherd’s Way Farms’ Merguez Lamb Sausage, & Fresh Chanterelles and Thyme

Laura — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 01:31:25 +0000

Shepherd’ Way Farms’ cheeses are so sublime it almost feels wrong to cook with them. Almost. I dreamed up this pizza as a vehicle for their friesago as well as their delicious merguez lamb sausage. It shows off their nuanced flavors without masking them. And it’s the best pizza we’ve ever had.

Shepherd’s Way Farms’ friesago is, like all of their cheeses, an expression of the land. It’s a semi-hard sheep’s milk cheese that is aged for at least four months in its black wax skin. It’s flavor profile is not unlike manchego, though it’s much creamier, and it’s nutty, rich, and mellow. Their merguez lamb sausage is made with lamb, pork fat, harissa, fennel, cayenne, garlic, and salt and pepper in a natural sheep casing, and has a warm kick without the fire of a traditional merguez.

My family ate these pizzas tonight and dinner was silent but for a steady stream of grunted expressions of awe. “The cheese is so good.” “The sausage is amazing.” “Mom, can you make this again soon?” my Sweet Boy just asked. And little Annie, our ginger terrier, was so excited, presumably about the lamb sausage, that she jumped up and licked my face. It is good.

Read more about Shepherd’s Way Farms here.

Thin Crust Pizza with Shepherd’s Way Farms’ Friesago, Shepherd’s Way Farms’ Merguez Lamb Sausage, & Fresh Chanterelles and Thyme
Yield: 2 pizzas to serve two to four people

Pizza Tips
This recipe calls for dough to make a very thin crust which is baked on a pizza stone. If you don’t want to fuss with that, or you don’t have a pizza stone, you may use any dough you like. I’ve even picked up a dough ball from my favorite pizza shop and rolled it out. Bake conventional crust on a pizza pan or baking sheet dusted with a little cornmeal in a 425 degree oven for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until the crust is cooked through and the cheese is bubbling.

If you are going to make the very thin crust, start with a clean oven. It doesn’t have to be sparkling clean, but you should wipe out anything that might smoke or burn. This pizza bakes at 500 degrees.

Start this recipe three hours before you’d like to eat. The dough takes a few minutes to put together and then rises for two hours. Place a pizza stone in your oven and heat it to 500 degrees one hour before you plan to bake the pizzas. You may also sauté the mushrooms and sausage ahead of time. Then it takes only minutes to assemble the pizzas, and they bake quite quickly.

Ingredients:
½ pound Shepherd’s Way Farms friesago, finely grated
4 links Shepherd’s Way Farms merguez lamb sausage, broken into bite-sized pieces and cooked
½ pound fresh chanterelle mushrooms, wiped clean, sliced, and sautéed in olive oil
a few sprigs fresh thyme picked of their leaves
2 balls very thin pizza dough (recipe below) or other pizza dough
flour for rolling
cornmeal for sprinkling on your pizza peel
a little good olive oil for drizzling on the crust
salt and pepper

Method:

Prepare your dough rounds.

One hour prior to cooking, place a pizza stone in your oven and heat it to 500 degrees.

Heat a sauté pan over medium heat, drizzle in a little good olive oil, and sauté the mushrooms until they are browning in spots and dry.

Remove the mushrooms and add the sausage to the pan. Lower the heat and cook it until it is no longer pink.

Drizzle the dough with a little good olive oil and sprinkle it with a pinch of salt and pepper.

Scatter the mushrooms, the thyme, and the sausage over the dough. Top with the grated cheese.

Transfer the pizza directly to the baking stone by giving it a little shimmy and bake until it is browned, about six to seven minutes.

Pizza Dough Tips
The water must be 105 degrees. If it is too warm you will kill the yeast. If it is too cool, the yeast will not activate. Dip your finger into the water. It should feel just above body temperature and barely warm.

If you don’t have a an electric mixer with a dough hook, just mix the dough until it comes together and then knead it by hand for about ten minutes.

If you do have a mixer with a dough hook use speed two for this recipe.

This is a very wet dough. You haven’t measured incorrectly. Your hands will get sticky with dough when you divide the dough balls. Just get as much dough as possible off your hands before you wash them.

Find a toasty warm spot in your house for the dough to rise. I balance baking sheets on bins of mittens and scarves on the top shelf of my coat closet, which is next to a heating vent.

To freeze leftover dough, oil a sheet of cellophane with a dab of olive oil and place the dough in the center. Wrap it tightly. Then wrap your little parcel tightly in aluminum foil, label and date it, and place it in a freezer bag.

Thin Crust Pizza Dough
Adapted from The Figs Table
Yield: enough dough for four pizzas to serve four to eight persons

Ingredients:
¼ c. whole wheat pastry flour
3 ½ c. all purpose flour (I prefer King Arthur.)
1 packet active dry yeast
1 t. sea salt
2 t. sugar
2 t. good olive oil
1 2/3 c. lukewarm water

Method:

Place the flours, yeast, salt, and sugar in an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook.

While the mixer is running, gradually add the olive oil and the water.

Allow the mixer to knead the dough until it is firm and smooth, about ten minutes.

Divide the dough into four balls, about 7 ½ ounces each.

Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Place two balls on each sheet and cover them with a damp towel. Let them rise in a warm place until they have doubled in size, about two hours. (You may freeze the remaining dough balls before this step if you are only going to make two pizzas.)

To roll out the dough, dab your fingers in flour and then place 1 dough ball on a generously floured work surface and press down in the center with the tips of your fingers, spreading the dough with your hand.

When the dough has doubled in width, use a floured rolling pin and roll it out until it is very thin, like flatbread. The outer border should be a little thicker than the inner circle.

Pick the dough up with a spatula or the back of a knife, allowing it to fold up almost like an umbrella, and transfer it to a paddle. Do not worry that the pizza is not round. You are looking for an 8- to 10-inch shape, a cross between an oval and a rectangle.

If you get a hole, simply pinch the edges back together

Repeat with the remaining dough balls.

Place the pizza dough on a cornmeal dusted pizza peel and proceed with the pizza recipe.