I have been itching to try braising meat in my new Dutch oven, so finally I picked up a couple of lamb shanks at Lazy Acres in Santa Barbara and made with them a variation of Osso Buco ("Bone hole", which refers to the hollow bones of veal shanks that are traditionally used in this recipe). Cooking for Engineers has an excellent illustration of this recipe, which I recommend using instead of mine, but I will jot down the details here for posterity nevertheless.Melt the butter in the Dutch oven or a wide oven-proof pot. Brown the shanks in the pot on medium heat, leaving them for a few minutes on each side, then set them aside. Now, sauté the onion until it softens, followed by the carrots and celery, and eventually the garlic. Pour in the wine, scrape off any brown residue on the bottom, and let everything simmer until about half of the wine evaporates.
Add the broth, the bay leaves, and the tomatoes. Let the soup come back to a simmer. Finally, put the shanks back into the pot, cover it, and place in the oven for about 2 hours. By the end of that period the meat will be soft enough to fall off the bone. Remove the shanks and reduce the remaining liquid into a thicker sauce by boiling it on the stove, adding starch if necessary. Pour the sauce over the meat when serving.
- 4 Tbsp butter
- lamb shanks (just 2 in my case)
- 1 large onion, diced
- 1 large carrot, diced
- 2 medium celery sticks, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 12 oz. dry white wine
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 can of diced tomatoes, drained