Lamb

Winter has officially arrived in NYC and I had to detour into the local zoo Century 21 on my way to Whole Foods to pick up some leather gloves today. Despite ranking up there along with crowded department stores on the things I like least about New York, cold weather is the perfect excuse to leave the stove on all afternoon braising away a bone-on chunk of protein like these gorgeous lamb shanks.

The slow cooking turns the tough lamb shanks into a sublime matrix of tender moist meat and lip coating collagen. Tart cranberries serve to offset the rib-sticking richness of the shanks and the tangy cranberry juice melds with the lamb liquid to form a rich sauce that’s loaded with umami and accented with cumin, cloves and garlic. continue →

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