Lamb Shanks with White Beans

I was just musing about lamb on the blog recently. Of the red meat, it is my favorite. It has been hard to find out here in Oregon and is relatively pricey compared to what I was used to in Virginia. Now that the quarantine is relaxing a little, we thought we might mask up and try the outdoor Saturday market here in McMinnville to see if we could find some lamb.

Lamb Shank on White Beans

There we came across a local lamb vendor, who was apologizing to us for lack of cuts. Demand is up because more people are cooking at home while throughput is down because the local abbatoirs are all backed up. Thank you once again COVID. He only had racks and shanks left. Ann and I both perked up at the mention of shanks. Exactly what is not to love about a meltingly tender lamb shank?

This being summer now, I wasn't going to braise the shanks in the oven and heat up the whole house, so I decided to use the slow cooker, something I have never done before. In the restaurant, we braised huge deep hotels pans of shanks in the oven.

To get started, I first browned the shanks and added them to the slow cooker with a large bouquet garni from the yard: a lot of rosemary and a bit of parsley, sage, basil, and oregano.

Lamb Shanks, Bouquet Garni

Then in the same pan, I sautéed some mirepoix and garlic. Once the onions in the mirepoix turned translucent, I scraped a hole in the center of the mirepoix and caramelized a tablespoon or two of tomato paste on the bottom of the pan, then deglazed with some rosé from the fridge.

Mirepoix Cooking, Great Smells

After deglazing, I added the mirepoix to the slow cooker along with a small amount of chicken stock and set it on high for six hours. Every couple of hours, I checked the liquid levels. When it started to go dry, I would add a bit more liquid. Five and a half hours in, the lamb was done. I added a cup or so of chicken stock and four cans of cannellini to heat through.

I would have used dried white beans, but I did not start the dish until noon and that just didn't leave enough time to rehydrate and cook the beans, an overnight process. In the winter, I would use red wine, more tomato paste, and lamb stock to make a darker braise.

The shanks were delicious over white beans the first night, but possibly even better two nights later. Then, I picked the other two shanks, mixed the meat back into the beans, reduced the liquid to almost dry, swirled in a large amount of baby spinach leaves, and served the beans in a bowl topped with tomatoes and tzatziki for a super quick dinner. Lamb twice in one week, what a concept!