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Sounds pretty straightforward to me. Braised lamb shanks are delicious and braised stuff in general is a good technique for beginners, in my opinion, because it's pretty easy to set up and forgiving on timing (the thing that I am most bad at). The recipe itself is just fine in terms of components/flavor profile and described process, but it's written in a really disorganized way. Lots of random recipes you'll find are written by amateurs who might be fantastic cooks with good stuff to share, but don't know how to write instructions well. I've definitely been dicked over by random recipes on the internet, like seeing a surprise ingredient that I don't have way down in the text or doing the prep wrong because it was worded/termed poorly. For this particular recipe: --Extract the whole list of ingredients and list them together so you make sure you have everything. Also, note what you have to do to prepare each ingredient (it's going to suck when your garlic is already almost done and you still haven't julienned the onions yet) --Gather and prepare/chop all your stuff BEFORE you start cooking and have it ready to toss in when the recipe says. Doing this has changed my cooking life. --What type of cooking vessel do you have? If it's a cast iron or enameled cast iron dutch oven (OR a pre-1998 Corningware casserole dish - old school Corningware is basically the same stuff as the ceramic thermal shielding on space shuttles), stove top is fine. If it's a non-Corningware ceramic casserole dish thing, you can braise in the oven because you don't want your poo poo to shatter all over the stove top (so, in oven at 350 or whatever for a couple hours or more). I'm assuming the recipe writer is talking about Corningware when she/he mentions using a potentially ceramic vessel and then doing the thing on the stove top. And even if you use Corningware, might be better to just toss it in the oven. --I didn't see any salt mentioned. Add some salt. Could be that the recipe writer is using cooking wine, which is loaded with salt, but I dunno. --When I've braised lamb shanks I've used the better part of the bottle of wine, so that might be easier than using the 2 cups and then supplementing with broth (which you will have to buy, reconstitute from bullion, or make if you don't have it handy already) --How many shanks is the recipe talking about? I'm presuming two. Still, seems skimpy on the garlic. I add at least six cloves for a pair of shanks. It cooks for a long time so the garlic mellows out a ton. Personal suggestion: Lamb shanks are hella good served over polenta too (polenta is really easy and fast to make), so an alternative to consider.
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Aug 6, 2015 19:19
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 09:34 |
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For cooking vessel, a standard skillet isn't going to be deep enough - at the very least, you want a deep-dish skillet like this, or a full-blown dutch oven. If there's no lid, I suppose you could do foil - never done it but don't see how it could mess things up. As for changing the flavor, adding salt will make it taste not-bland and make you not need to douse it with the salt shaker once you serve it. A nicer wine might make it marginally better, but the cheap stuff is just dandy for braising. I recommend the cheapest bottle of heavy Italian red you can find. In my personal opinion, I find that cheap-poo poo wines from Italy (or France) are better than similarly priced wine from the US and other places. Or if you have a Trader Joe's nearby and are not in Pennsylvania, pick up some Two Buck Chuck. For lamb shanks, the fore shanks are small (but cheaper), and the hind shanks will be bigger and meatier (but more expensive. Depending on where you are and the market for lamb, you could be paying anywhere from $4/lb to $10/lb. I think last time I did shanks I paid $6/lb.
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Aug 6, 2015 21:15
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Happy Hat posted:Not agreeing on the quality of the wine - I only cook with what I serve it with - mainly because I've hosed up some good dishes with braising in bad wine. I can't bring myself to cook with what I serve.  Because then I'll just serve it and do something that's not braising.Also, I should clarify that the wines I pick out for braising are super cheap but still drinkable (I'll definitely sneak a glass while I'm cooking) and suitable to serve at a dinner party (though maybe as the third or fourth bottle you open) and come in proper 750ml bottles, not boxes or jugs. Besides, I've never gone wrong with a $7-8 bottle of red from Italy, France, or Chile for cooking (and probably also drinking while I'm cooking). US is hit or miss (fine if you know what labels are good for the price), but my bf and I have been burned by terrible Australian wine enough times that we just avoid it in general unless we get a specific recommendation, like, wouldn't even cook with it terrible. pr0k posted:Watch this three or four times. This is a good video.
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Aug 7, 2015 18:28
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