FoodMayhem

Jessica bought some beautiful, large beef shanks and we needed to sneak in at least one more hearty meal before the weather gets warm. So I found an interesting sounding recipe for Wine-Braised Beef shanks, which was taken from the Sept 19, 1995 issue of Family Circle. Sadly, the recipe was written poorly and didn’t make a lot of sense. My instinct is that it was the web-translation from the paper magazine that caused the problem.

So I adapted the recipe, cleaned up the parts that made no sense, and swapped a few ingredients, like some parsnip for half the carrot and butternut squash for rutabaga. The result was a far better (we think) balanced dish with wonderful, rich flavor.

I prefer this type of dish served over twisted egg noodles, but since we didn’t have any I used elbows. I plated each person separately.

Wine-Braised Beef Shanks
~makes 4 entrees

Ingredients

• 

  2 tbsp. Vegetable Oil

• 3 lbs. Beef Shank Steaks (~1.5-inch thick)
• 6 cups Leeks, 1-inch chop (2 pieces)
• 1 cup Butternut Squash, 1/2-inch dice
• 1 cup Carrot, 1/2-inch dice (2 pieces)
• 1 cup Parsnip, 1/2-inch dice (1 large piece)
• 1 cup Water (room temperature)
• 1 cup Dry Red Wine
• 2 tbsp. Tomato Paste
• 4 tsp. Garlic, minced (3 cloves)
• 1 tbsp. Kosher Salt
• 1 tsp. Dried Basil
• ½ tsp. Dried Marjoram
• 

  2 tbsp. All Purpose Flour

• 2 tbsp. Water
• 1/2 tsp. Ground Black Pepper

Gremolata Ingredients

• 1 tbsp. Grated Lemon Zest (1 lemon)
• 1 tsp. Garlic, minced (1 clove)
• 1/4 cup Fresh Parsley, chopped

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

2. Heat 1 tbsp. vegetable oil in ovenproof Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add beef; cook until browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove meat, reserve.

3. Reduce heat to low, cook leeks, squash, carrot, and parsnip in another 1 tbsp. vegetable oil in Dutch oven 8-10 minutes, until soft. Add tomato paste and heat through. Stir in 1 cup water, wine, basil, marjoram, garlic, and salt. Add reserved meat, cover with veggies.

4. Bring to simmer. Cover. Bake in preheated oven for 3.5-4 hours or until beef is very tender. About half way through the process, turn everything.

5. Place beef and vegetables in serving dish. Pour cooking liquid into small sauce pan. Skim off fat. Whisk together flour, black pepper, and 2 tbsp. water in small bowl until smooth. Whisk in a little of the cooking liquid. Whisk flour mixture into saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until mixture bubbles and thickens, about one minute. Spoon sauce over meat and vegetables.

6. Prepare Gremolata: Finely chop together zest, garlic and parsley (this can also be done up to two hours ahead of time). Sprinkle over serving dish or individual servings.

posted by Lon at 07:18 PM Filed under French, Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.