Shanked

[madbaker]

This week's Resolution Recipe: Wine-Braised Beef Shank with Onions.

4 lbs beef shank (I used aforementioned ginormous beef shank, approximately 1.5 lb of which was bone.)
2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp black pepper
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 lbs onions, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped (Ha! I used... more. Basically an entire head.)
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 1/2 cups white wine
1 cup water

Heat oven to 325. Pat beef dry and rub all over with 1.5 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper. Heat oil in a really large Dutch oven until hot but not smoking and brown beef on all sides, about 15 minutes total. Remove beef to a plate.

Add onions to pot and saute over moderately high heat, stirring frequently, until pale golden - about 10 minutes. Add garlic, tomato paste, herbs, and remaining 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add wine and water and bring to a boil. Return beef to pot, cover tightly, and braise in the oven for 3-4 hours. Turn beef over every hour or so. Remove from oven and let stand, uncovered, in the onion sauce for about 30 minutes.

Remove meat from sauce, shred with two forks, and return meat to sauce. Mix in with a pound of cooked egg noodles and serve.

What worked: This was fabulous. It was quite different from our normal braises; maybe because it was white wine instead of red? Heavier on the onion, which we like? Or just because the beef shank was from a happy free-range hippy cow?

What didn't: I didn't have quite enough onion and it was a bit lighter on sauce than I would have preferred given the quantity of meat. It made a lot of leftovers - more than we could mix in as a ragout with the noodles. Especially when I discovered the pound bag of noodles was in reality a half pound bag.
I'm making another Resolution Recipe (spoilers!) with some of the leftover meat and probably mole enchiladas with the rest.

Will I make it again? This may become one of our default braises. Like Lamb Shanks Toulouse this was pretty freakin' awesome. It'd be really good with lamb or goat.

Comments

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

Gosh, if you had posted this BEFORE we ordered groceries last night, it would've gone into the queue.

Maybe I'll pick up a beef shank on Sunday and try it.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

One of these days I must discover (and record) the One True Braised Shanks recipe. I occasionally discover it by accident and then lose it again. The one thing I'm certain of is that acid is an essential ingredient.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

And I definitely DO NOT mean LSD.

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

The Lamb Shanks Toulouse (http://madbaker.livejournal.com/215316.html) recipe we're fond of used a whole bottle of wine. I assumed that was the kind of acid you meant.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

I've also had good luck from tomato supplying the acid. But I've also had problems with tomato carmelization, since I tend to do shanks in a crockpot, started ca. 24 hours before consumption.

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

We use the stovetop, and have not had a problem with caramelization since we started using the Simmer Mat (https://www.lehmans.com/p-1810-the-simmermat.aspx) from Lehman's. (We also have one in our SCA kitchen box to help with the propane stove.)