Impromptu Braised Lamb Shanks

 

Earlier this year for our Eating Babies meal we bought a whole lamb from SuDan Farms and split it with some friends. The thing about buying a whole (or half) animal is that you have some great ideas for the first couple meals, and then the rest of the animal sits in the freeze for a long time until you tell yourself "I have to finish using that damn sheep" and if you tell yourself this enough times you eventually get around digging through the freeze and pulling something out.

I pulled out shanks.

http://www.muckandmagicorganic.co.uk/shop/lamb.php

For those of you that don't know, the shank is the bottom part of the front legs of the sheep.  It's like a drum stick.  Or the forearms.  (Fore shank in the diagram). 

Now I have never cooked shanks before.  I think I've only eaten them a couple times in a restaraunt. The shank is a tendon-y piece of meat and every recipe I've seen calls for slow cooking.  

My wife found a really nice recipe on Epicurious.com, but we didn't have all the ingredients, so I improvised.

Braised Lamb Shanks with Garlic and Herbs

Lamb Shanks from SuDan Farms

Onions from Pumpkin Patch Farm

Garlic from Pumpkin Patch Farm

Olive Oil from Belle Ragazze 

Thyme and Marjoram from my garden

Gnarly Head Cab from California

Organic Beef Stock from Fred Meyers

Because this was impromptu, we pulled together some other random stuff we had in the house, none of which was particularly local.

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes from Fred Meyers

Butter from Noris Dairy

Milk from Noris Dairy

Cauliflower Soup (frozen in the freezer.  I think someone gave us this.)

And that was random Sunday dinner.

Local Is Hard

This is not a particularly local meal, and it certainly wasn't planned (unlike the other meals I'd posted about).  But what I'm finding is that it really isn't that easy to cook local food all the time.  Imported stuff creeps in all over the place, and it's almost impossible to stop it.  

Even with the best farmers markets in the country, local markets and co-ops that are open every day of the week, and farms that are just 30 minutes out of town, it's still a struggle to eat 100% local. Why is that?  I think I know the answer.

Toilet paper is not local.

You go to the store for some butt wipe and while you're there you remember that you also need some broccoli and the apples look good and how about some bread for lunches this week and might as well pick up some onions while you're at it...etc., etc., etc.

Pretty soon you've conveniently done all your grocery shopping and making an extra trip to the market seems like a huge pain in the ass, so you don't do it.  And you don't eat local.  We don't at least.  

End of confession.

The Local Plan is Born

What to do about it?  Well, here is the thing.  I'm going to try to convince my family that we should eat 100% local for one week.  That is 7 days of local only produce, meats, condiments, spices, herbs, and dairy.  It's mid October and this may be the last realistic chance we have at doing this.  

What does this mean?  No vegetable oil.  No pepper.  No oregano.  No avocado.  No mango.  No lemon. No pasta.  

What else does it mean?  Truly fresh food.  Eating only what is at its best right now.  Realizing that Autumn is more than sweaters and frosty breath--it's squash and nuts and late season tomatoes that fill your mouth with meaty sweetness when you bite into them.  It's seven days to realize where we are. It's seven days of here and now.

So, the timer is beeping for the lamb shanks.  I'm sure they'll be fine.  We'll see what comes after...

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Slow Food seeks to reconnect people with the food they eat and the cultures, community, and production behind it. At the heart (and belly) of our activities, we believe that every individual has a right to Good, Clean, and Fair food in their daily life. Through lectures, tours, cooking demonstrations, volunteer days, and other local events, Slow Food Portland works to engage our community with the broader food movement. We partner with local and national activists, chefs, farmers, and organizations already working for direct change to our food system, and we encourage you to join us in our effort.

What's Good Now with some help from Ned Ludd's Jason French

It's raining.  I had big plans for the day to break out my long neglected 4x5 and go take some very artful pictures of some big oak trees I found on Sauvie Island to work on my Sauvie Island picture collection.  But, the rain stopped that and I had nothing else to do for the day.  My solution to this Saturday blah?  Food, of course.   Specifically, beets.

Ever since our friend Tiffany introduced my family to the magic of buttered, roasted beets a couple years ago, we look forward to the end of summer and the new beet crop with enthusiasm.  Red beets.  Golden beets.  Big beets.  Little beets.  They are all good.  Cubed.  Sliced.  Whole.  Grilled.  Sauted.  Oven roasted.  It's all wonderful.  In salads.  As a side dish.  Topped with crumbled goat cheese.  Simple with butter and salt.  Complicated in a gratin.  We love them.

Then, while driving to the Pumpkin Patch Farm to do some shopping, I had another idea.

What Jason French Thinks is Good Right Now
A couple months ago we ate at  Ned Ludd on MLK and really enjoyed it.  The food was very good.  They deserve the attention they've been given by pubs like the New York Times and GQ.  And best of all, we got to spend some time talking with owner Jason French.  Jason is passionate about seasonal food and local sources.  He even uses Oregon olive oil from Red Ridge Farms.  It was great to hear the stories of a working restaurant and their adventures with local sourcing.

But today what I was interested in was his opinion on what is good right now.  I was thinking beets.  What was he thinking?  I gave him a call to find out.

We both agreed this is a shit year for tomatoes.  His other suggestions were a surprise.

Melons are coming on late this year and they are extra tasty.

Egg plant and hot peppers.  Jason notes that the skins are thinner on these fruits this year, and that makes them better.

Cucumbers.  They're just really good right now.

Beans.

Some ways that they are using these ingredients in dishes at Ned Ludd:

Melon, House Prosciutto, Sea Salt appetizer
Mixed Greens, Cucumbers, Radishes, Simple Vinegarette salad
Lamb Loin Chop, Spuds, Eggplant, and Pepper Agrodolee dinner