Lamb Shanks DIVINE!!!!

What a wonderful recipe, and we had the perfect weather for it today, a cloudy windy day with rain showers. It was a great day to spend in the kitchen, sip wine and anticipate this meal. I agree with Jeanne about the rissoto. I also happen to like it and could have eaten this particular version of it as a meal in itself, but it is an easy recipe that I will probably make again. We usually serve mashed potatoes with these,and when I make this again I will go with potatoes. Jeanne, Dale and I will be thinking of you as we are eating our lunch this week, as we plan to eat the leftover rice as well. We also served a Pinot with this, one from Oregon, and it was delicious. We also roasted some squash, which was sweet and in keeping with the season. Unfortunately, I have no pictures as Greg has "misplaced" his battery charger. Best Buy anyone? I have to admit that I was very skeptical about this dessert upon reading the recipe. Carmel topping? But I was very pleasantly surprised with the results, I think that with the tart apples and lemon juice, the flavors balanced very well and it was not as sweet as I anticipated it would be. A plus... it was very easy to prepare. I substituted currents for the raisins, which I like better for cooking.

We feel fortunate that we have more lamb shanks in our freezer, and will enjoy this meal again. Miss you both so much,and am looking forward to doing this again in November

Lammhaxe Rock too!

Always remember: If you're alone in the kitchen and you drop the lamb, you can always just pick it up. Who's going to know? Julia Child

I needn't have worried, all month long, about getting these lamb shanks...the butchers at the Viktualienmarkt (photo above) were well stocked with them and the meal was worth the trip, Liz. While unimpressive in its pre-cooked stage, the braised lamb was out of this world...what I couldn't find was herbs de Provence, so had to make my own. I never appreciated that they included lavender, but fortunately we had some in the garden...I just pulled off a few dead flowers and threw them in to the mix...we found the sauce was thick and rich enough without thickener and our Austrian Esterhazy Pinot Noir complemented the dish beautifully...

We would have preferred it with plain rice or potatoes...I loved the risotto...but felt the flavors of the parmesan rice clashed a bit with the lamb...and all of the butter and cheese in the rice makes it very rich with the red meat...I'll enjoy the leftover risotto next week for lunch.

The apple pudding cake was delightful...took a walk to our local orchard for the apples...made my own caramel topping (slightly burned because I was on the phone with Mary while cooking it). We finished off the dessert with our own homemade French vanilla ice cream.

Next time, I'd start cooking earlier...the meal took four hours to prepare and by the time it was on the table, there was little patience left for any creative composition with the photos...we even considered skipping that step altogether we were so hungry...we stuffed ourselves and in the end, needed an hour's walk through the village, blanketed in thick fog, to help digest it all.

Lamb Shanks Rock!!!!

This was a delicious meal. I had to travel a bit to find lamb shanks here in Arizona. There is a Whole Foods in Scottsdale, about a 30 minute ride, not too bad considering that Mary and Jeanne have to ride that far to get a gallon of milk. I felt the shanks were a bit small, but they were very tasty. I purchased 4 for Bob and I (no company this time). I thought there might be enough for leftovers but I ate 1 and 1/2 and Bob had the rest. We had some sauce and rice left over, so we will grill a small rack of lamb and use the leftover rice and gravy to accompany that meal.
The risotto was very good. I left out the ham, didn't think I would need that flavor with the lamb gravy and also, Bob is not a parmesan cheese fan, so I left that out for him and he loved the rice. BTW - I added some corn starch to the lamb shank liquid to make a thicker gravy. I also strained out the veggies - for Bob.
Make sure  you pay close attention to the risotto recipe - I mistakenly added all the liquid at once and I know that it made a difference in the texture of the rice. However, it was still delicious.
Loved the Apple pudding - make sure you have some vanilla ice-cream...it makes all the difference.
I will be cooking these lamb shanks again.....
Hugs

Liz