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    Sunday, March 25, 2007

    Saturday Dinner

    Currently at home alone…I was invited to dinner with Katie and Chris.
    The temptation was extra gripping.
    She was making Lamb Shanks.
    I saw a wonderful way to roast vegetables (inspired by Tim McRoberts
    on Food TV he is a Canadian chef) and cooked them to accompany the wonderful shanks

    First the vege

    You will need for 4 people (there were left overs…good lunch the next day)

    3 tablespoons olive oil
    2 fingers potatoes per person
    2 med carrots cut into 12 sticks
    2 little turnip each
    Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
    2 baby onions each
    2 whole cloves garlic each
    2 handful sliced mushrooms
    3 stalks of silverbeet sliced stalks and all
    3 stalks of celery chopped


    Bouquet Garni
    1 stalk of celery cut in half horizontally
    3 sprigs thyme
    3 b ay leaves

    8 black olives
    Juice ½ lemon
    50 gms feta crumbled
    Several basil leaves...torn for garnish


    If your you can cook in your roasting pan on the stove top do this in one stage
    I decided to spread the cooking over 2 frying pans and then transferred to a roasting dish to finish off the dish.
    First put oil into a med hot pan
    Add potatoes, carrots and turnips
    Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper

    Cook gently 10 mins
    Toss around
    Add onions garlic cloves, mushrooms, celery and silverbeet
    Saute another 10 minutes

    Meanwhile make the Bouquet Garni
    Lay thyme and bay leaves on 1 piece of celery place the other piece on top and tie up with string.
    Get ready to roast in 180C oven.
    Put all veges and Bouquet Garni into roasting pan
    Roast until fork tender about another 15 minutes
    Squeeze lemon juice over
    A good grind of freshly ground black pepper
    Pile onto platter
    Crumble over feta cheese and tear basil leaves for garnish


    Now from Katie’s Kitchen
    Katie is always looking for recipes without tomatoes as she has an allergy
    She developed this delicious dish very simple

    Katie’s Lamb Shanks
    To feed four
    I large lamb shank per person
    3 tablespoons flour
    Sea salt & freshly ground black freshly ground black pepper
    3 tablespoons olive oil

    1 large red onion peeled and chopped
    2 large carrots peeled and chopped
    2 sticks of celery chopped
    3 cloves garlic chopped
    1 bottle red wine
    1 litre chicken stock
    2 large sprigs rosemary


    Season the flour with salt & freshly ground black pepper and dredge
    each shank, shake and brown all over in hot pan in the oil
    Remove and set aside.
    Add chopped vege to pan and coat with oil
    Saute 5-6 minutes.
    Deglaze pan with red wine
    Reduce down a little
    Add chicken stock

    Carefully return shanks to pan along with rosemary sprigs
    Bury them in the liquid.
    Bring back to boil
    Turn heat down and simmer
    2-3 hours till shanks are fork tender.

    Remove from pan
    Skim fat off pan juices and reduce down by half.
    Taste and test the seasoning and adjust with salt & pepper if needed.

    Return shanks to pan
    These are now ready to serve as soon as you are ready
    We served them sitting on some mashed kumara.
    And yes, we did demolish that large shank.
    They were great.

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