Blizzard Fare: Baked Lamb Shanks

The Tuesday after Snowzilla 2016, the meat shelves had been picked nearly bare. Happily, I found a couple of lamb shanks - not quite large enough for a Roald Dahl story, but sizeable nonetheless. A few variations on this New York Times recipe resulted in a hearty, delicious meal that was perfect for a snowbound day.

2 T olive oil
2 large lamb shanks (about 3 lbs. total)
1 large onion, sliced
1/2 t ground allspice
1/4 t ground cloves
1 t salt, plus more to taste
1/2 t ground pepper
28 oz can whole tomatoes, chopped
1 t oregano
2 c hot water
14.5 oz can white beans, drained and rinsed

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Put oil in a large baking dish. Add the lamb shanks, turning them to coat them evenly with oil. Bake 30 minutes, turning once.

Combine the onions, allspice, cloves, salt and pepper. Mix well, then spoon the mixture on top of the lamb shanks.

Combine the tomatoes with the oregano. Mix well, then spoon on top of the onion mixture.

Pour the water around the lamb shanks.

Turn the oven to 400 degrees and bake for 1-1/2 hours, or till tender (1-1/2 hours was fine, though it could have gone longer for that falling-off-the-bone texture). If the dish begins to dry out, add more hot water.

Add beans to the juices 10 minutes before the end of cooking time. Mix everything and spoon some sauce over each shank before serving.

Chicken Garlic Stew

I was going to try a new chicken recipe, but we were all playing MLB 2K9 across the hall (my Yanks got spanked by the Indians, though fortunately Joba Chamberlain was not attacked by insects this time), and I wanted to minimize my at-stove presence. So I made this old standby (from Bittman) instead. It came out quite well (how can one go wrong with oodles of stewed garlic?) - John and I had it over white rice for a late dinner (after the ignominious defeat of our Nats by the Rockies), and some more is sitting under my desk in today's Mr. Bento. My tweaked version of the recipe is below:

• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1-1/2 lbs. chicken thighs (1/2 of what the original recipe called for, but I like sauce)
• salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• at least 2 heads of garlic, separated into cloves but not peeled (I used 3-1/2 small ones this time))
• 1/2 tsp. allspice (double what Bittman calls for; I much prefer this to cinammon, which is also a possibility)
• 1/2 cup chopped parsley (heaping)
• 1/2 cup dry white wine (other options include stock and water)

Put olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Brown chicken well, turning when necessary. (This should take 10-12 minutes, but my pot was a bit too hot and the skin started sticking, so I peeled it off and abbreviated to about 6 mins.)

Sprinkle chicken pieces with salt and pepper; add allspice, parsley, garlic and liquid to the pot. Bring to a boil. Lower heat till liquid is at a brisk simmer, then cover the pot and play more Xb leave unattended till chicken and garlic are very tender, at least 1 hour.

Uncover. Correct seasoning, and serve (Bittman defaults to bread; I default to white rice).