Oven Roasted Lamb Shanks With Roasted Tomatoes And Toasted Orzo Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Heat oil in a medium Dutch oven over high heat until smoking. Season the shanks on both sides with salt and pepper and sear until golden brown on both sides. Remove shanks to a plate. Add the celery, carrots, and onions and cook until caramelized. Add the Port and red wine and reduce by half. Add the chicken stock, the pulp from the roasted garlic, and return the shanks; bring to a boil on the stove, and then cover and bake in the oven for 2 hours or until tender. Remove shanks, strain sauce into a medium saucepan, and reserve 1 cup of the braising liquid for cooking the orzo. Cook the sauce over high heat until liquid is reduced by half. Serve shanks with sauce, orzo, and tomatoes.
• Preheat oven to 200 degrees F. Place garlic heads in a small roasting dish and drizzle with olive oil. Roast for about 1 1/2 hours or until soft. Let cool before squeezing the pulp out.
• Bring 8 cups of water (or a combination of chicken stock and water) to a boil. Heat a medium nonstick pan over medium-high heat. Add 1/2 of the orzo and toast until golden brown. In a medium saucepan, heat the butter and oil over medium heat, then add the onion and cook until soft. Add the toasted orzo and the remaining orzo and saute for 1 minute to coat the pasta with the onion mixture. Add hot water to the orzo as if you were making risotto, a little at a time, until the pasta is al dente. Finish with the cold butter and 1 cup of the braising liquid. Stir in parsley and season with salt and pepper, to taste.
• Preheat oven to 200 degrees F. In a small baking dish, toss the tomatoes in olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast for 4 hours. Alternatively, use re-hydrated sun-dried tomatoes instead.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Heat oil in a medium Dutch oven until smoking. Season the shanks on both sides with salt and pepper and sear until golden brown on both sides, remove to a plate.
• Add the celery, carrots,onions and garlic and cook until caramelized. Add the port and red wine and reduce by half.
• Add the chicken stock and shanks and bring to a boil, cover and bake in oven for 2 hours or until tender. Remove shanks, strain and reduce liquid by half.
• Orzo Pasta: Heat oil and butter in pan. Add 1/2 of orzo and toast until golden brown. Add onion and remaining orzo and saute for 2 minutes. Heat a pot of water and add to the risotto as if you were making risotto, a little at a time, until the pasta is al dente. Finish with additional butter and a small amount of the braising liquid, add chopped parsley and salt and pepper to taste.
• Slow Roasted Tomatoes: Toss the tomatoes in olive oil, season with salt and pepper and roast in a 200 degree F oven for 4 hours. (Re-hydrated sundried tomatoes will work just as well)
• Roasted Garlic Bulbs: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place water and butter in a roasting pan, add garlic heads, cut-side-down, cover and roast for 1 hour.

Steps:

• Roast lamb shanks at 200 C in a roasting pan for approx 30 minutes.
• Remove shanks from pan and drain fat from pan then add rice. Sprinkle carrots & celery over rice.
• Mix chili, garlic, stock, tomatoes, wine & rosemary together and pour over rice. (This mixture could be used as a marinade for the lamb prior to cooking).
• Place shanks on top of rice with tomatoes. Cover & cook at 150 C for approx 2 hours.
• Check after an hour or so and add more liquid if necessary.
• Serve garnished with chopped parsley.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 300*F. Spread out the tomatoes in a large shallow pan (a sheet pan is ideal) and sprinkle with the other ingredients, turning to coat them with oil. Bake 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 hours, basting and turning the tomatoes several times. They're done when their color deepens to dark scarlet and they taste mellow and very rich. Don't let them brown, and don't allow the garlic to brown, it'll turn bitter.
• Transfer the tomatoes and their oil to a glass or china bowl. Let them mellow at room temperature up to 6 hours. The flavors will ripen in this time.
• Refrigerate the tomatoes up to 4 days, or freeze up to 3 months. Serve the tomatoes at room temperature, or tossed with hot pasta.