I think I’m now convinced that the pressure cooker is perhaps one of the greatest inventions to the home kitchen in a long time.  Especially if you’re the type of person who loves slow food: braising, slow cooking, falling of the bone, you know.  Basically the pressure cooker allows you to do this sort of food in around 30-60 minutes when it could otherwise easily take you 2-4 hours.  Since getting my pressure cooker back in the summer, I’ve mostly been focused on making pork in it, as well as some beef – mostly tough cuts like shoulder and rib meat.  The shanks are some of my favorite parts of the animal, especially lamb, which benefit from being a little bit more succulent than veal or Ossobucco in my opinion.

Shank meat is typically pretty lean – the shanks of the cow are very lean, much of the time used for extra lean ground beef (96/4 no joke!).  Lamb shanks are fairly lead too, but are full of connective tissue that renders into delicious gelatinous love when cooked long enough.  The pressure cooker makes this process happen in a fraction of the time – convenient for us working types.

This interpretation of the classic dish is somewhat French – utilizing rosemary, thyme, garlic and a simple braising liquid made of red wine and homemade stock.  Remember that you can do these in a pressure cooker for sure, but I imagine that the more popular way of doing these is in a dutch oven or heavy baking dish.  Either way, I think you’ll agree that braised lamb shanks are one of the more savory and comforting dishes you can do on a cold day in the fall or winter.

Serves 6

• 6 lamb shanks
• 2 medium yellow onions – chopped
• 2 small/medium heads of fennel – cored and chopped
• 6 cloves garlic
• 4-5 rosemary stalks – leaves removed
• A few stalks of Thyme – leaves left on the stalks is fine
• 1/2 – 3/4 bottle of red wine
• 6 cups of chicken stock (homemade preferred)
• Salt/Pepper
• Olive Oil

Start with the pot or pressure cooker over high heat.  Add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pot.  Add some salt/pepper to the lamb shanks and add them to the bottom of the pot, fat side down and brown them on either side, flipping them when one side is nicely browned.

Once all of the shanks are nicely browned, remove them from the post and set aside.  Turn down the heat to medium/low and add the onions and fennel and another small splash of olive oil.  Cook the aromatic vegetables slowly until they become somewhat caramelized and browned.  Add the garlic, rosemary and thyme next and stir in.  Cook for a few more minutes, and then add in half of the wine to de-glaze the pot – scrape all of the stuck bits from the bottom of the pan.

Add the rest of the wine and the chicken stock and then the lamb shanks back to the pot.  Try to keep the shanks in 1 layer, then cover and bring the pot to a boil.  If you’re using a pressure cooker, time to clamp down your lid and bring the pot to 15 pounds of pressure  and cook for 45-50 minutes.

If you’re using a dutch oven, then bring the liquid to a boil and cover the pot.  Lower the heat a bit to make the pot just simmer before letting it braise for a few hours.  You know your done when you can literally take a fork and literally pull the meat off with little to no effort.  This my friends is what we refer to as ‘falling off the bone’ and it’s one of the best things the food world has to offer.

As an optional step, you can fire up a sauté pan on high heat and finish the lamb shanks by browning them off to add a little crust to the outside of them.  This is really going to give you the awesome texture on the outside, while still being incredibly tender on the inside.  Enjoy!

Stew is food for the soul, and that is exactly what I was after with this dish.  I don’t make stew very often because it is so time consuming, and with life as hectic as it is, most of my cooking these days happens about thirty minutes before I am ready to eat.  But tonight I was cooking a meal for a good friend of mine who could use a little boost in spirits.  The meal was for the next night, so I had plenty of time to prepare a slow-cooked pot of food without the hasty influence of hunger.  You just can’t rush soul nourishment, and no dish can warm a person’s being any better than stew.  And, if you ask me, the earthy, rich flavor of lamb makes the best stew.

So, knowing the dish would be done well past my normal bedtime, I started preparing this dish about seven, after I had gotten home from work, walked the dog, and eaten take-out Thai food.  I had solicited Adrian’s help, so he had gone to the store and cubed the meat by the time I got home.  For stew, you want meat with some fat on it, so a shoulder cut is great.  Even lamb neck pieces can make great stew.  A leg of lamb is a little lean, and tends to dry out a bit, so while it is delicious for roasting, it is not the best cut for this preparation.  We bought arm chops and cut them into cubes.  We browned up the bones with the rest of the meat and cooked it in the stew to add richness.  Before I packaged it up to send off to my friend’s house I removed the bones, which were clean of all their meat.

Since I was sending this stew off as a meal to go, I decided to serve it with quinoa, a nutty, extraordinarily nutritious grain.  I also prepared a spinach salad with dried cranberries and crumbled goat cheese for a little acidity to balance out the rich favor of the stew.  I threw in a baguette to complete the meal.  Next time your soul needs a little lift, or you know someone who does, give this delicious stew recipe a try.

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ lbs. lamb stew meat, cut into 1 in. cubes
• 4 cups chicken stock (or lamb stock, if you can get it!)
• 2 cups of dry red wine
• 4 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1 in. pieces
• 1 large yellow onion, very roughly chopped
• 1 10 oz. bag of pearl onions, blanched and peeled

• 5-6 cloves of garlic, minced
• 3 Turkish bay leaves
• 1 tsp. fresh thyme leaves or ½ tsp. dry thyme leaves
• 1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. ground cumin
• ½ tbsp. smoked paprika
• 5-7 threads of saffron
• 3 tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 2 tbsp. unsalted butter
• Salt and pepper to taste

Begin by patting the meat dry with paper towels.  The meat will not brown properly if it has too much moisture.  Season the cubes with salt and pepper, and then dust them with the flour, 1 tbsp. of cumin, and the paprika.  I do this part in a brown paper bag so I can gently shake the meat to coat it evenly. Then I shake off the excess flour before I brown the meat.

In a heavy bottomed Dutch oven, heat the butter and olive oil over medium-high heat.  When the pot is hot enough so that it begins lightly smoking, put one layer of the meat in the pot.  Leave the meat alone to brown for about three to four minutes before turning.  Brown on both sides and then put aside.  Repeat this process as necessary until all of the meat is brown.

Remove all but one or so tablespoons of remaining fat from the pan and reduce the heat to medium.  Add the chopped onions, remaining cumin, saffron, thyme, bay leaves, and a pinch of salt and sauté for a few minutes until the onions begin to soften.  Add the garlic and carrots and sauté another few minutes.  Add the red wine and scrape up all of the bits on the bottom of the pot.  Let the wine cook down over medium heat for about five minutes.

Return the meat to the pot and add the chicken stock, which should cover the meat.  Bring the stock to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer.  Place a lid on the pot and let it cook for 2 ½ to 3 hours, or until the sauce has thickened and the meat falls apart.  Taste for salt and remove bay leaves and bones, if you used them.  Serve immediately, or refrigerate it for up to a week and reheat when you are ready.  The flavor just gets better when it has a chance to sit.  Serves 6.