FoodNuts!

Beautiful beef shanks

On January 6^th of this year, I put myself on a diet. It was a simple one: No alcohol of any form (not only puts weight on, but makes for “bad decisions” in regards to your calorie intake), one meal a day that consists of one head of iceberg lettuce, hot peppers, a slice of blue cheese and raw scallions. As of the start of the diet, I have lost 56 lbs. Not only did I have my doubts that I could lose the weight, but I must admit I also had no idea how I would feel after such a big loss. I have more energy than I have had in years, I sleep less and sleep better, and have resolved to never return to that level of gravity again.

I bring this up only as a prelude to the following recipe. While on the diet, I ate a “regular meal” once a week, that once being Friday night. The meals varied as to what they were, but all fell into the “hearty” category. It was a good break from the somewhat monotonous once-a-day meal, and probably helped me to stick with the diet overall.

I noticed last night that my wife was thawing out beef shanks for the following day. Close to veal, it differs only in the age of the animal. I immediately thought of that great Lombardian recipe Osso Buco. It would be richer with beef than with veal, and I figured I would have to cook it a bit longer to get that “falling off the bone” aspect that makes Osso Buco so wonderful. That being said, on to the kitchen!

Basically, it is a very simple recipe. Its beef shanks à la Mirepoix.

To prepare the beef shanks, you have to remove the connective tissue that is on the outside of the shank, otherwise the shank will curl during cooking.

remove connective tissue

Dredge the beef shanks in flour. Add three tablespoons of Olive oil to a braising pan and brown the meat. While browning, prepare the vegetables.

brown dredged shanks in olive oil

The ratio of a Mirepoix is 2:1:1, onions, carrots and celery. Dice the vegetables but not too fine.

Diced vegetables

When beef is brown, remove from the pan and add the diced vegetables. Sauté the vegetables in the olive oil (add a couple more Tbls if needed). As they cook, add about ½ cup of water and cover (this will add a final steam to the veggies, softening them and preventing burning).

sauté vegetables in olive oil

When vegetables are tender, add two cups of beef stock or wine, or a combination of the two, depending on your taste. Add 1 tsp pepper, two teaspoons of salt and 2 tsp of thyme. Add the browned shanks with enough water to bring the liquid level to the level of the shanks, but not over them. Cover, and simmer for about an hour (Because I am using beef instead of veal, I simmered until they were  very tender, perhaps 20 minutes longer).

start simmering when all ingredients in

When tender, serve the meat with covering of the vegetables and sauce from the pan. It went very well with Potatoes à la Lyonnaise. I’ll cover them in another post.

The final product

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