Just a coincidence..

I swear. Really!

I'm braising lamb shanks.

And I see last year, just about to the day, I was...braising lamb shanks.

There must just be something about this time of year that has me needing a serious comfort food fix and braised lamb shanks has always been a favorite.

I used my standard braising liquid recipe and my own Tuscan herb blend. I mix equal parts of dried basil, thyme, rosemary and sage. Well. A little more sage. And with the rosemary I take the dried leaves and run them through a coffee grinder. It's the rosemary and sage that make it a "Tuscan" blend.

Anyone can do a really nice braise.

The most important thing really is to sear your meat. Nice and brown with some chunky well done bits left behind in the pan. I use a well seasoned cast iron dutch oven.

Searing the lamb shanks
The bones will bring a ton of flavor to the dish.

Take the shanks out and put them on a plate. Add a little more olive oil if you need to and sauté chopped celery, carrots and onion until they're soft and reduced in volume. Maybe 6 or 7 minutes. Then add some chopped garlic. Turn the heat on high and in a minute or two add some dry red wine. When the wine is reduced add chopped tomatoes, stock, some Worcestershire and the shanks. Bring it all to a rolling boil, reduce the heat and cover. Keep a vigorous simmer going for 2 and a half to 3 hours.

Then I take about 2/3 of the braising liquid and put it in a blender. Be sure and put a towel over the top of the blender! I've done this I don't know how many times and *this* time the top popped off. Good thing I had a towel over the lid. That's only happened to me once before.

I return that to the dutch oven, add in some fresh carrots and I like purple top turnip, and let it go for another 20 minutes or so.

Bordeaux goes really well with lamb. Here I just found out Bordeaux are generally various blends of Merlot and Cabernet. I had no idea.

Here. Just look at this!

I did something a little different here - serving it over rice. I usually have this over mashed potatoes or polenta. It was very good over rice.

You can do pot roast this way, you can do short ribs this way, you can do all kinds of things exactly this way and it's delicious every time.