Braised Beef Shanks with Coconut Milk, Ginger and Cumin

I purchased some beef shanks that were about 1 ½ inches thick from my friends at the Farmers Market in Ardmore, PA. I have braised lamb shank, veal shank and pork shank so I was excited to see how beef shanks would compare.

The recipe was adapted from The Complete Meat Cookbook, one of the best cookbooks in my collection. If you want to learn about beef, pork or lamb, this book is a must. Not only does it have loads of great recipes, it has tons of information about meat cuts and how to cook them.

One thing I noticed when the shanks started cooking was a peculiar smell in the kitchen. To be honest, it wasn’t that appetizing but after about 45 minutes, the “peculiar” smell changed into an appealing one. So don’t be alarmed if you start off with a funky aroma.

The original recipe calls for coating each shank with a flour, salt & pepper combination. I skipped this step and it didn’t seem to upset the finally outcome.

I was concerned the spices might be more than my kids could handle but was pleasantly surprised when both of them told me they enjoyed both the meat and the sauce. Like other braised shank meat dishes, even if the meat is over cooked and a little dry, the sauce makes up for it. And the marrow from the shank bones was incredible.

Braised Beef Shanks

Ingredients

3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons peanut oil (I used extra virgin olive oil because that’s all I had)
2 ½ cups chopped onions
2 carrots cut into ¼ inch dice
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
Salt & pepper, to taste
4 pounds beef shanks, cut 1 ½ to 2 inches thick
2 ½ teaspoons ground coriander
1-teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 ¾ cups brown stock (beef stock)
1 ½ cups unsweetened coconut milk
1 cinnamon stick, 3 cardamom pods, lightly smashed and 2 bay leaves – wrapped in some cheesecloth
Freshly chopped cilantro for garnish

How to Make Braised Beef Shanks

Start by preheating the oven to 325 F. Heat a large enough Dutch oven or roasting pan over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of the butter with 1 tablespoon of the oil. When the butter melts, add the onion, carrots, garlic and ginger.

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Veal Scallopine with Artichokes, Button Mushrooms and Aged Balsamic Vinegar

These recipes come from my friends at ChefsLine.com and specifically Chef Cary Wolfson, ChefsLine’s culinary content director and executive chef at a large university. As you can see, there are not a lot of ingredients for either of these recipes and they both can be made during the week or on the weekend.
Veal Scallopini with Artichokes
Servings: 2

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
6 oz thinly sliced veal cutlets, pounded 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick
1/4 cup dry white wine
3/4 cup canned or oil cured artichoke hearts, well drained
1 cup button mushrooms, washed
3 tablespoons aged balsamic vinegar

How to Make at Home
Spread flour on a shallow baking pan. Lightly season veal with salt and pepper, then coat completely with flour. Shake off excess flour.

Heat oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a 12-inch heavy skillet over high heat until foam from butter subsides.

Saute veal without crowding, in batches if necessary, turning over once, until browned and just cooked through, about 2 minutes per batch.

Transfer to a platter as done, and keep warm in oven (200 degrees).

When finished preparing veal, reduce heat to medium. Melt remaining butter and saute mushrooms for 2 minutes. Add artichokes and saute for 2 minutes more. Add white wine and reduce until almost dry. Use a silicon spatula or wooden spoon to stir pan while cooking.

Divide veal slices between 2 plates and top with artichoke and mushroom mix. Drizzle balsamic over all.

Serve with Saffron Couscous.

Saffron Couscous
Servings: 2

Ingredients
1 cup couscous
1 cup water
1 Tbsp. Extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 pinch saffron threads

How to Make
In a small sauce pan, bring water, saffron, olive oil and salt to a boil. Add couscous and pepper. Mix well. Remove from heat and cover for 5 minutes. Fluff with fork and serve.

Short Ribs are great to prepare in a crock pot and in my opinion should be eaten a day or two after you prepare them. They are easy to make and a great recipe to clean out your refrigerator as you will see.

We met up with my good friend Barbecue Bob and his wife Bert at a local skating rink with their kids for a birthday party my youngest daughter attended. I had these ribs cooked from Thursday night so I asked if they wanted to come over for dinner. Very impromptu.

The ribs were cooked in the crock pot all Thursday night on the lower setting. In total they cooked for over 9 hours. Maybe too long for some and yes all the meat fell off the bones but it wasn’t over cooked or dried out.

I put the meat into two separate containers figuring I would serve one on Saturday and freeze the other for another night before inviting our friends over. By refrigerating the short ribs over night, it allowed the flavors to meld and the fat to rise to the top so it could be removed easily with a spoon. This is a great way to get rid of most of the fat from your soups, stews and braises.

Ingredients:

The main ingredient to this dish were the short ribs (the long kind called Flanken Style vs the short type called English Style). I knew I would use an onion and 4 or 5 garlic cloves and then found some leftover fennel from another recipe and a container of cremini mushrooms that had to be used or thrown out.

I knew I wanted to some tomatoes that were looking a little shabby and after closer inspection I could only salvage one of them so I used a can of diced tomatoes from the pantry. There was some port wine to deglaze the pan after browning the ribs and 3/4 cup of brown stock. And of course some salt and pepper, to taste.

How to prepare crock pot short ribs

What I love about cooking anything in the crock pot is once you prep the ingredients and get them into the pot you are done. Walk away. You don’t have to do anything until the dish is cooked. In this case, I went to bed and woke up to a kitchen that smelled wonderful.

For this recipe, I browned the ribs, a few at a time, in a fry pan with a little bit of olive oil and butter. Once they were browned, I removed them from the pan and put them into the crock pot. Next time I prepare this, I may put them aside, prep and prepare the rest of the ingredients, put these ingredients into the crock pot and the ribs on top. I’m not sure if it would make a difference but if you happen to know, please comment below.

Next I deglazed the pan with some port wine, let the wine cook down to an essence and then sautéed the onions, garlic and fennel in a little olive oil. I added all this to the crock pot on top of the ribs.

I then sautéed the mushrooms that my daughter de-stemmed, cleaned and sliced in half. These were added to the pot.

With the sautéing done, I added a can of diced tomatoes and 3/4 cup of brown stock to the crock pot and seasoned everything with salt and pepper.

Add the cover and let it cook until the meat is tender and falling off the bone. Do you have to cook it for 9 hours? No, I’m sure it was fine to eat in 5 hours but I was going to bed and didn’t want to fuss with it. You could also make a dish like this in the morning have have it ready by the time you get home for work.

After removing the fat that floated to the top and congealed, we reheated the short ribs and sauce in a large sauce pot on the stove over low heat.

My wife and I served the short ribs in shallow bowls over delicious mashed potatoes and served sautéed spinach on the side. All very simple and easy to make while entertaining. Everyone loved this simple recipe. The meat and sauce had tons of flavor. The mashed potatoes with the sauce were excellent and I think it was the best sautéed spinach I’ve ever prepared. A crusty loaf of French bread doesn’t hurt either.

A great meal especially for cold weather.