Tom Valenti’s Braised Lamb Shanks
I recently hosted a lovely dinner party for several of our good friends. I had promised one of them that I would make my somewhat famous braised lamb shanks (they will be way more famous after this blog!) ;). As I generally do with dinner parties, I had planned out the menu and had my list of to-dos. One of course, was to order the lamb shanks, which I did days in advance. Little did I know the disaster that would ensue!
I had the choice of placing my order at Whole Foods, Harry’s or a store I will not name. I chose the no name place because I was rather favoring them lately. I found their produce was beautiful and fresh and the prices were good. So when I called around and I could get Australian or New Zealand lamb shanks at any or all of the above stores at the same price, I thought, heh, I’ll give the littler guy my biz!
Their meat department assured me that they carried Australian lamb, so that is what I would be getting at $5.99/pound. I would pick them up Wednesday so that I could cook them Thursday, let them sit overnight and then reheat and finish the dish Friday before our guests would arrive.
Well, what to my wondering eyes should appear when I went to open that package on Wednesday (instead of Thursday), than USDA stamped all over the shrink-wrap?? Now I don’t know about you, but if I see USDA on my meat, I think it probably means it is from the United States! It might not have been a big deal, but it really bothered me that I was hoodwinked by the meat man! If you can’t trust your butcher, who can you trust?! I had prepared a big fat pot full of pricey wine, aromatics and my last frozen container of homemade chicken stock. You are truly messing with the wrong woman when you use my homemade chicken stock! Everything was ready and all I needed was some Australian lamb shanks! These American guys were not going in that pot!
Mr. Butcher Man had stood right there in front of me and my hubby as he wrapped those big hunks of shanks in that brown paper packaging and assured me that they were Australian, because of course, I was asking just to be sure. I bet he was smiling too (thinking “sucker”!), although I did not notice! I do not like the US lamb that I have tasted. I prefer lamb from New Zealand and Australia, so if I am going to the trouble to fix and eat this stuff, I wanna like it! And at $72.00 for the shanks and a near heart attack at that price, I should get what I ordered.
I could spend an entire blog post (and I just might) telling you all about that day. The only good news is that after getting the shanks home, I decided to go ahead and give myself one extra day and cook them on Wednesday instead of Thursday. Well, it was a REALLY good thing! Of course, I called the no name store and was informed that yes indeedy, the lamb was of US origin (NO!!! You are kidding me!!!). Then my patience was driven to the breaking point as I called and drove all over Atlanta to find out that almost everyone was sold out of lamb shanks until Friday.
I finally ended up at the DeKalb Farmer’s Market (which is very cool place, by the way!). They had just 6 shanks left and told me they were Australian. I assume they were honest about it, but who knows…I’m not buying what the butchers tell me anymore! I had to get lamb in some form in the pot full of $30 worth of wine, etc.! And I was so upset at the other store, they got their ole lamb back! Thank goodness, I had one extra day to correct the mess.
I know one thing, I will never again promise any particular food to anyone for a dinner party. I will always ask if there are allergies or dislikes, but folks coming to my house are going to eat what I fix or go home hungry! The hunt for the lamb was a disaster of major proportions.
On the bright side, the dish was amazing once I finally got to the end result! I use Tom Valenti’s recipe that has been around for a long time. I have tried several other recipes, but enjoy the flavors in this one the best. I like to make the dish at least a day ahead so that the flavors come together (it’s a darn good thing, especially with this crisis!).
This is a fabulous make ahead dish for entertaining. I have made several adjustments to the original recipe. I have noted them with a **. I prepare the shanks a day or two ahead and then puree the sauce and finish them in a Dutch oven before serving them to your guests.
I served this awesome dish with the best tasting and most incredibly fattening potato gratin (I will give up the recipe soon!), haricots verts, a simple green salad and french bread. Brownie Tart with Creme Anglaise was dessert that evening (my last post). It was a great bistro style dinner with great friends, fabulous wines and wonderful conversation.
Everyone had a great evening and all went extremely well in spite of the lamb disaster!
Braised Lamb Shanks
Adapted from Tom Valenti’s Lamb Shanks
Originally appeared in Parade, March 2002
My changes are noted with **
Ingredients:
6 lamb foreshanks
Coarse salt and pepper, to taste
3 tablespoons plus 1/4 cup olive oil
2 ribs of celery, roughly chopped
1 carrot, roughly chopped
1 onion, roughly chopped
1/3 cup tomato paste
5 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
8 whole black peppercorns
3 anchovy fillets
1 whole head of garlic, cut in half crosswise
2 cups red wine
1 cup white wine
1/3 cup white-wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
2 cups beef broth and 2 cups chicken (I use Pacific Organic Beef Broth and Homemade Chicken Stock)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Season the lamb with salt and pepper.
2. Heat 3 tablespoons oil in a pot over medium-high heat. Add the celery, carrot, and onion; cook until very soft, 8 to 10 minutes.
3. Add the tomato paste and cook 1 to 2 minutes. Add the thyme, bay leaf, peppercorns, anchovies, and garlic; cook 3 minutes.
4. Add the wines, vinegar, and sugar; raise the heat to high and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to medium and add the broths. Leave over medium heat while you brown the lamb shanks.
5. Pour the remaining 1/4 cup of olive oil into a sauté pan. Over medium-high heat, brown the lamb shanks well on all sides, using tongs to flip them over.
6. Transfer lamb shanks to a roasting pan and pour the braising liquid on top. Cover with aluminum foil and cook in the preheated oven for 1 hour. Remove the foil and cook 2 1/2 to 3 hours more, turning the shanks over every half hour until the meat is very soft. ** Instead of these directions, I only cook them in the roasting pan for a total of 2 1/2 hours because I cook them later prior to serving dinner (one hour covered and then 1 1/2 hours uncovered). I do turn and baste them while uncovered.
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. ** Instead of those directions, I refrigerate the dish overnight in the roasting pan after about 2 1/2 hours of cooking time. I then remove the pan from the fridge the next day, remove the hardened fat, garlic and remaining pieces of herbs. I heat up the dish so the sauce is liquid, remove the shanks and then puree the sauce with all the veggies included. I put the shanks into a large Dutch oven with the sauce, cover the pot and baste them peridocially for about 45 min. to 1 hr. prior to serving.
I say “nice shanks” and you say “shanks a lot”
I say “shanks” for the comment! 🙂
Lamb and anchovies = Brilliant!! Funny story – well not for you when you were in the middle of it I guess, but glad it all turned out well. Still dreaming of that brownie tart *drool*
Brownie tarts photograph better than lamb shanks! 😉 This is a great recipe. Always consistent with fabulous flavors. I just hate the anchovies and am glad they cook to mush so I don’t know they are in there!
Oh! you are funny, do you think the Ozzy lambs are tastier because they are raised with “no worries mate”. No, I think is because the Australian lamb are primarily grass fed and the US lamb are grain fed. But I could be wrong….Anyway it looks lovely.
I wish that day had been funny…grrrrrr….! I like the “no worries mate”! Maybe it’s the great attitude that makes the difference! 😉 I know there are some farms (particularly in Colorado) that are supposedly producing lamb with similar taste, but I have not found the flavor to be the same. By the way, I was in THAT grocery store today and noticed that the shanks had a sign stating they were of US origin. They actually had that for all of their meats. Maybe I had something to do with it???!!!
Well, well, well: LAMB SHANK. I, a single mother who impossibly lived in Greenwich Village BY MYSELF (no roommates), used to manage a restaurant @ 38 Dominick Street–a NYC street which is only 3-4 blocks long and that nobody has ever heard of–which was part of its allure. (Try, as a non-driver, explaining to half of Westchester/Long Island upper scale persons how to get to Dominick Street by car, or even walking, on average 45+ a day and even in one’s sleep (we in the “trade” call them “restaurant nightmares”), and not go insane. Tom Valenti was, for most of my tenure, a noted chef and we were so famous amongst the higher echelons (chefs included), for “our” braised lamb shank, that used to joke with the staff that we should remame the restaurant “The Shank Shack”. This was well before Danny Meyers’ “Shake Shack”. The Shank Shack idea came to me (prescient as always) because it was a destination restaurant for the very same thing made the very same way each and every day: no variation on the theme. For anything really. Most NYC top tier chefs demand they be asked, not consulted, first if they will accommodate a “special order”, i.e. “SOS”, an anagram for “sauce on the side” on the “dupe” [this was before computers, and even after computers before the waitperson put the order in) and HATE IT. It throws the wntire kitchen off balance. Most front-of-house management has no culinary experience what so ever beyond unwrapping a frozen Eggo and melting a pad of unsalted, sweet, or salted butter on top of the waffle, on top of a massive hangover and then going back to a job that never ends. “Is this your restaurant? Are you Alison? Do you cook the food yourself and serve it too? Can I have the recipe? To the “busboy” who was Bangladeshi and a grown man, married with a family of his own working off the books for tips: “I have three (3) dogs at home, do you think you can dig through the trash and fetch out some o’ these bones for my dogs?”– I was there for that one. The busperson looked at me and I looked at my right-hand-man that I had away from another restaurant, and shocked, we both pronouced, in unison,”No.” Screw the tip. Alison frequently left the city every weekend for the Hamptons, and despite seeing the tip payout on paper which was delivered to her nightly, and despite the bank having received licketty-split each and every single (Yes, at the time we even accepted “Diner’s Card”, if you can believe it) credit card transaction, I was left empty-handed with no money for the front-of-house staff, and I dare say Tom and his kitchen crew were not paid on time either as Alison rode away in her Saab. A kitchen staff knows a super busy restaurant because they arrive each day hours early to prep, lift, cook, prepare “mis-en-place”, ice, stock, clean, tender to their knives and slashes, burns, nicks and a million other disasters. They too have bills, children and spouses they never see. Rate of divorce is high, and affairs very frequent, Alison would know. Because you work at night and most sleep during the day, the only people you get to know are those in the industry. Serving so much of the same thing makes one impervious to anything fancy, i.e. a lamb shank. I mean, nobody is going to make oneself a lamb shank on one’s day off. Or, like, EVER. But here I go again. While shopping at WHOLE FOODS in Brooklyn (which has a see-through butcher-kitchen), there it was wrapped in plastic: a LAMB SHANK. Lamb shanks are hard to find ’round these parts. Also, I mean, who has three days to cook these things, let alone shop for them, lug them home, perhaps freeze and then thaw, prep, time, deliver? Well, I do, unfortunately. Why?– a great story, a story for another time…. I immediately had snapped up a lamb shank at Whole Foods while accompanied by a friend who, most annoyingly is strict about “organic” everything. I mean a true pain in my ass. I had asked him if he had ever had shank of lamb. He asked if was fed organic whatever. I didn’t feel inclined to tap on the butcher window to ask. I told him that I din’t see any sign that it was organic and sidn’t care. Bought, it finally ended up in his freezer as I didn’t have the time or the money for 45 ingredients. He made it himself. He, straight male, baked it. I was shocked. Now that I have somewhat restored myself to my former glory (when I was working for Alison and announced to her, full of pride, that I has been accepted at Columbia University, she was outraged and complained: I don’t want a manager whose mind is on school! What are you going to do about this!?”), I find that I am a lady of leisure. Anybody who has had years and years of restaurant work will tell you it never, ever, leaves you. To this day I know exactly what’s going on in any restaurant environment. I can even feel the mood. My lamb shank friend was convinced by myself that we should stick to the traditional lamb theme for Easter. I was thinking leg of lamb, but nope, his mind was on the two lamb shanks he’s had in his freezer whichI bought at the aforementioned store a few weeks ago because they were there, he loves them, and because I wanted to trade lamb shanks for the ransom I held high over his head: BEER. Lamb shanks in exchange for beer, as my cash reserves are low usually. I got my deal. So for Easter, I am going to add at least two (2) more lamb shanks to the two in his freezer. Because it is so labor intensive and keeps for a fair amount of time in the frig, why make only two? I saute (brown) the lamb shanks having tossed them in flour and then olive oil ((or vice-versa–I can’t remember which comes first, but the idea is to lock the juices in), and then, browned, place them in a heavy duty stock pot (think Croussoule (sp.?), through in veggies like carrots, turnips, potatoes even, rosemary, my friend’s thme which he home grows and grows really quickly on his windowsill, Kosher sale, pepper corns, a whole orange studded with a frw cloves–optional of course, chicken, veal, or beef stock and plenty of either cheap red or cheap white wine with plenty left over for the cooking chef followed by the better stuff for dinner, more or less to impress because by then, who cares? I never, it seems, eat what I cook, at least initially. Some people drain/blot the sautéed lamb shanks after their I itial browning in a cast iron pan. But why? A good olive oil is yummy too. The dish is not for the [sneaky] dieter. 325 degrees sounds perfectly reasonable to me BUR FORCA LONG TIME. 2-3 cooking days also sounds reasonable to me, just at a lower temperature after the initial cooking time. Take your time! The lamb should “cut like butter”, or if you’re from Staten Island, where I was born and certainly went shankless until I was hired by [gratefully, by the way], Alison: “cut like butta”. Now don’t forget to place your yummy lamb shank on either pureed potatoes, or pureed chick peas, or a combination of both, or yummy polenta. The idea to plate with something mushy is so that the delicious “gravy” (or sauce) that has cooked down to a near ambrosia is so that the underlying concoction absorbs, and goes nicely with the Shank. Tom, as I recall, would stuff either a sprig of rosemary or a Reed if long chive into the marrow on top ofvthecshank. The Shank was not served on its side, but raner vertically. A rather tall dish and immediately aromatic. It’s too bad we did not utilize marrow spoons in the restaurant. Lots of customers steal silverware as “momentos”, if you can believe it. Now that we can get anything on line including babies, marrow spoons or pipecleaners shouldn’t be too difficult to find. Otherwise, don’t forget about the dogs–yours or a neighbors’ b/C the marrow should definitely not go to waste. Buy yourself a terrific baguette and treat the marrow as butter. Slather it on and gulp down a beer in front of the telly with a good glass of Guinness. My ex-stepmother was so enamored of the lamb shank at Alison’s that she had the bright idea of serving the dish for my father’s annual Christmas dinner to which all attorney friends and their spouses (most now divorced and married to their fellow partner’s wives) were invited. The fest became the talk of the town weeks before the coveted hand-stenciled invitation arrived. I had a boyfriend for a time, one if the partners in a very prestigious law firm (think Martha Stewart and Woidy Allen) who, because he was dating me, was finally invited and started crying when I invited him to “the house” for the famous dinner. The dinner took place at my father’s, and his wife’s country house which was initially owned by Gypsy Rose Lee–famous murder in the master bedroom, full mini-stage in the cellar, 5 bedrooms, library, etc.–all if which had to be emptied to accommodate the guests. So, each and every room was a dining room with stairs in between Food loses heat as it travels, so serving a hefty dish like lamb shank to each and every guest is tricky indeed. My step-mother, ever the Architectural Digest subscriber, had a second kitchen installed in the basement, where the stage was. So even more transit involved. The shanks for approx. 100 guests had to have been made in batches. Tricky indeed. I don’t recall ever having been invited except after I began dating the crying lawyer, and even then, I probably had to work, so didn’t go. Everybody loved the lamb shank, and all silver was accounted for–back to rhe caterers it went. I’m sure the staff loved it as well. I know the staff did at Alison’s and perhaps their dogs did too. So get ready [for my book] and your TOTALLY PREPPED lamb shank adventure. This is no last minute deal! For those concerned about cooking with wine: Fear not! The wine is added not only for flavor, but also to break down the rather sinewous fiber. THE ALCOHOL BURNS OFF! It is a shank after all and rather tendonous. Don’t pay any attention to people who advocate to “cook with wine you like to drink, i.e. the expensive stuff, B.S!.: cook with the cheap stuff. The alcohol in alcohol braising lamb shank [s] will not make you drunk! I get drunk because I cannot cook with out drinking. I stick to beer which is like my bottled water on a daily basis. Hey, it got me through Columbia U. (🇩🇪 studies, in German for the most part because I didn’t think my tenure was challenging enough– I graduated on a full merit scholarship the last 2.5 years in 3.5 years overall, and then drank myself through graduate school as many of the brightest in all ways, shapes, and forms did–even in the classroom, secretly, ofcourse). Seriously, don’t skip or substitute the wine bit, the shank needs it. I don’t care what my organic friend says. He also bakes bread which I forget to eat and wind up throwing away even though I tell myself I can make bread crumbs with a hammer and an expensive kitchen towel (I don’t own anything cheap, unfortunately). He loves his own bread. Other people tells him it tastes like cake. But he’s a good guy. I also introduced him to Bronzino, the Mediterranean fish. Have the fishmonger gut the liver. Perhaps leave the bone on. Stuff it with anything: leeks, medley of white cabbage, carrot, an anchovies, lemon 🍋, a pinch of paprika, anything or nothing, a pad of butter? Wrap it in tin foil, set it to bake. If you can smell it, it’s done! This goes for just about anything! One would be hard-pressesd to “overcook” a stewed lamb shank, BUT DON’T OVERCOOK THE BRANZINO! I “undercook” my filet of salmon, or I make a gravlaz. Easy as pie, and you can nibble all through the week with absolute self control!