Braised Lamb Shanks with White Beans & Kale

With the onset of Fall heralded by nice refreshing rain, Mauricio wanted me to make one of his favorites; a hearty and comforting meal of braised lamb shanks with white beans and kale.

I made this Saturday evening and every ingredient for this dish came from our gardens except for the white beans and lamb, of course. We don't do lamb very often, so we splurged on some beautiful Prather Ranch shanks. Here's my recipe:

Rae's Braised Prather Ranch Lamb Shanks Over White Beans with Kale

4 medium sized lamb shanks
1 medium onion, diced
2 cups of diced tomatoes with juice
3 garlic cloves minced
2 garlic cloves smashed
3 carrots diced
3 cups of home made beef stock (or canned beef broth)
1 cup red wine
two whole ribs of celery
2 fresh or dried bay leaves
2 large sprig of fresh thyme
1 small sprig of fresh rosemary
1 pound of dried white beans rinsed and soaked overnight
1 large bunch of kale
3 T. olive oil
salt & pepper to taste

Start by seasoning the shanks with salt and pepper thoroughly. Sear the lamb shanks in olive oil in a heavy dutch oven, over medium-high heat until well browned on all sides. Remove shanks to a plate. Turn down the heat to medium and add the diced onion and carrots. Saute for 5 minutes scraping up the bits of browned meat. Add the garlic and saute for another minute being careful not to brown the garlic. Add the wine and reduce to half. Add the the beef stock, tomatoes one sprig of thyme, rosemary and lamb shanks. Cover and put in to a 325 degree oven for 2 hours or until the meat begins to fall off the bone.

Meanwhile place the soaked white beans in to a pot and cover with cold water. Add 2 teaspoons of salt, fresh cracked pepper, two bay leaves, one sprig of thyme, 2 smashed cloves of garlic and two ribs of celery. Bring to a simmer and cook until tender, about an hour. During the last 20 minutes, add the chopped kale to the beans and cook until tender

Remove the celery, bay leaves, thyme sprig and rosemary sprig from beans. Ladle the beans and kale in to serving bowls. Add a lamb shank to each bowl of beans and ladle cooking sauce from shanks over the top. Enjoy this meal with crusty peasant bread.

Serves 4

To top off this hearty meal, I made a nice loaf of persimmon gingerbread with homemade vanilla bean ice cream for dessert.