{"id":37385,"date":"2021-08-27T01:23:25","date_gmt":"2021-08-27T08:23:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=37385"},"modified":"2021-08-25T12:47:21","modified_gmt":"2021-08-25T19:47:21","slug":"lamb-shanks-a-savoury-dish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2021\/08\/27\/lamb-shanks-a-savoury-dish\/","title":{"rendered":"Lamb shanks a savoury dish"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lamb is a rich meal, so count on one shank per person. (photo by Arild Finne Nyb\u00f8)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

This year, I plan to stray from my plebian Rosh Hashanah chicken and salmon, and go all in with lamb shanks. Even as I write this column, I don\u2019t know whether or not we\u2019ll be able to gather with family this year for the High Holidays. But, I\u2019m hopeful. And, after spending a year-and-a-half\u2019s worth of Jewish holidays celebrating via Zoom (or on our own), it\u2019s left me remarkably unfazed. We have to eat, after all. It may as well be yummy. As my father always reminded me, \u201cI am the most important guest in my own home!\u201d So, lamb it is.<\/p>\n

Being a shockingly bad liar, I feel compelled to come clean right at the get-go. I have never cooked this dish before. My husband Harvey is the lamb expert at our home. But it\u2019s high (chai) time I stretched my culinary balabusta skills. For the record, I am breaking all my own rules, by making a dish that has more than five ingredients, and which looks like it\u2019ll take a good hour or more to prepare. But we\u2019re worth it. The end result will be a smooth, savoury dish with extrastellar depth and gastronomic nuance. Ha! And if you believe those hyperbolic words, I have a bridge to sell you. But, in all seriousness, it\u2019s one of my favourite meals, rich though it may be.<\/p>\n

As you know, if you\u2019re a hardcore carnivore like me, lamb is a very fatty meat. As well, it has a distinctive flavour that you either love or hate. There don\u2019t seem to be many fence-sitters when it comes to lamb. Harvey and I position ourselves squarely in the love-it camp. While we don\u2019t eat it often, we consider lamb fancy food, and usually only have it on special occasions. Like Tuesdays. It plays well with rice, couscous, noodles or potatoes, which makes it an equal opportunity meat. And that\u2019s something I admire in my food.<\/p>\n

MOROCCAN LAMB SHANKS<\/strong><\/p>\n

6 lamb shanks
\n<\/strong>coarse salt and pepper to taste
\n<\/strong>3 tbsp plus 1\/4 cup olive oil
\n<\/strong>1 large onion, finely chopped
\n<\/strong>6 large garlic cloves, minced
\n<\/strong>4 carrots, cut crosswise into 1\/2-inch pieces
\n<\/strong>4 celery ribs, cut crosswise into 1\/2-inch pieces
\n<\/strong>2 tbsp packed brown sugar
\n<\/strong>1 tsp dried thyme
\n<\/strong>1 tsp ground cumin
\n<\/strong>1 tsp paprika
\n<\/strong>1\/2 tsp ground cinnamon
\n<\/strong>1\/4 tsp ground cloves
\n<\/strong>1\/4 tsp cayenne, or to taste
\n<\/strong>1 1\/2 cup dry red wine
\n<\/strong>3 cups beef broth<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Preheat oven to 325\u00b0F. Season the lamb with salt and pepper.<\/li>\n
  2. Heat three tablespoons oil in a heavy pot over medium-high heat. Add the celery, carrots and onion and cook until very soft, eight to 10 minutes.<\/li>\n
  3. Add the thyme, cumin, paprika, cinnamon, cloves, cayenne, brown sugar and garlic and cook for three minutes.<\/li>\n
  4. Add the wine, then raise heat to high and bring to a boil. Lower heat to medium and add the beef broth. Leave on medium heat while you brown the lamb shanks.<\/li>\n
  5. Pour the remaining 1\/4 cup of olive oil into a saut\u00e9 pan. Over medium-high heat, brown the lamb shanks well on all sides.<\/li>\n
  6. Transfer the lamb shanks to the roasting pan (or Dutch oven) and pour the braising liquid on top. Cover with a lid or aluminum foil and cook for one hour. Remove the lid\/foil and cook two-and-a-half to three hours more, turning the shanks over every half hour until the meat is very soft.<\/li>\n
  7. Remove the shanks from the braising liquid and strain the liquid. Skim any fat that rises to the surface, then use the liquid as a sauce.<\/li>\n
  8. Serve over rice, couscous or noodles, or with potatoes.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I can say with a fair degree of certainty that this is one of the tastiest lamb dishes I\u2019ve ever had the pleasure of devouring. It\u2019s not exactly summer food, but it\u2019s perfect for fall or winter. If you served it for Rosh Hashanah dinner, you would undoubtedly impress the heck out of your guests. Or whomever you plan to eat with. It\u2019s a labour-intensive recipe, no question about that. But you\u2019ll thank me once the smell comes wafting out of your kitchen and you begin to food swoon.<\/p>\n

    Like I said, it\u2019s a rich meal, so count on one shank per person. If you\u2019re Israeli, you\u2019ll probably opt to lay it gently on a mountain of rice or couscous, but maybe you\u2019ll go rogue and settle it lovingly on a bed of noodles. We Ashkenazim like our meat and potatoes (a little too much, I\u2019m afraid), so I\u2019ll probably make a side of roasted baby new potatoes. If you go the traditional Ashkenazi route and start with gefilte fish and matzah ball soup, I guarantee you\u2019ll be stuffed to the gills by the time you get halfway through the lamb. But will you stop? I think not. It\u2019s kind of like a marathon \u2026 you don\u2019t get halfway through only to say, \u201cI think I\u2019ve had enough.\u201d Oh no, you\u2019ll throw yourself into this Moroccan lamb like it\u2019s a cold lake on a hot day.<\/p>\n

    As for Rosh Hashanah dessert, if you think anyone will have even a millimetre of space left in their stomach for a little something sweet, think again. I\u2019d say there might even be a vomitorium involved, but we\u2019re not Roman, so \u2026 no. Maybe put out some fruit for those who are really feeling gluttonous and want to ring in the New Year with a Gaviscon chaser. It\u2019ll only be a token gesture (the fruit, not the Gaviscon), but you can always have it the next day for breakfast. Mind you, I\u2019m usually so stuffed the following day that I can barely face food until maybe 9 a.m. Decide for yourself. Those little fruit jellies are always a nice touch, and barely take up any room.<\/p>\n

    Before you start feeling full just reading this, remember that you don\u2019t have to eat every course that\u2019s served during Rosh Hashanah dinner. You\u2019re allowed to beg off the first three and save yourself for the main event. No one will be offended. In fact, probably no one will even notice. Whatever you end up doing for the High Holidays, be healthy, be safe and here\u2019s to a sweet new year full of positive and inspiring adventures. Shana tova u\u2019metuka.<\/p>\n

    Shelley Civkin<\/strong> aka the Accidental Balabusta, is a happily retired librarian and communications officer. For 17 years, she wrote a weekly book review column for the <\/em>Richmond Review. She\u2019s currently a freelance writer and volunteer.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Lamb is a rich meal, so count on one shank per person. (photo by Arild Finne Nyb\u00f8) This year, I plan to stray from my plebian Rosh Hashanah chicken and salmon, and go all in with lamb shanks. Even as I write this column, I don\u2019t know whether or not we\u2019ll be able to gather […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37386,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[781],"tags":[8729,3584,20816,20817,1801],"class_list":["post-37385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holidays","tag-accidental-balabusta","tag-cooking","tag-lamb-shanks","tag-recipe","tag-rosh-hashanah"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}