Lamb Shanks Cooked in Paper with Guiness

By á-1900

This is a recipe I took from a book "BONES, Recipes, History & Lore" by Jennifer McLagan.

ISBN-13 978-0-06-058537-2 or ISBN-10 0-06-05837-4

This is one of the best cook books I have ever seen. Hope you enjoy Jennifer's recipe.

Ingredients

• 4 Lamb shanks, frenched, about 12oz each
• Kosher salt and pepper
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 8 medium onions, sliced
• 1 large carrot, peeled and diced
• 1 celery stalk, diced
• 4 large Rosemary sprigs
• 1 bottle, 330ml, Guiness beer
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 11/2 tsp dry mustard
• 4 garlic cloves, halved
• 1 orange

Details

Servings 4
Preparation time 60mins
Cooking time 240mins

Preparation

Step 1

Pat the lamb shanks dry and season with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat and brown lamb shanks on all sides. Transfer to a plate. Add onions to the pan, stirring well to coat them in fat, then cover and cook for 10min, or until soft, stiring 3-4 times while scraping the bottom of the pan each time.

Add the carrot, celery and rosemary and cook, uncovered, 2-3min, scraping the bottom of the pan from time to time. Pour in the beer and bring to a boil, deglazing the pan by scraping the brown bits from the bottom. Add the sugar, mustard and garlic and continue to boil, stirring from time to time, for 10min, or until the beer becomes thick and syrupy.

Meanwhile, remove 4 large strips of zest from the orange and squeeze 1/4 cup of juice from the orange. Add the zest and the juice to the pan and continue to cook until the liquid just glazes the onions. Remove from the heat and let cool. There should be 3-4 cups of the onion mixture.

Pre-heat oven to 330F. Cut four 15" squares of parchment paper. Divide the onion mixture among the four parchment paper, placing it in the middle of each one. Make sure that each square has a rosemary sprig, an orange zest strip and two garlic halves. Stand a lamb shank on top of each one and pull up the corners of the parchment paper to form a packet. Tie it with string about the exposed bone.

Stand the packets in a Dutch Oven or baking dish and bake for 3hrs.

Remove from the oven and place the packets on warmed plates. Cut the string and allow each diner to open their own packet.