lamb shanks with harissa

This is a fairly close following of this food-porn-adelic recipe on youtube. (Watch the video, it's amazing). The recipe calls for two shanks, I used four, but the stew would have been enough for six-to-eight people, so this could work for up to eight shanks. (Leftover, the stew is amazing with an egg poached in it — today's lunch. It's also great on its own, and works as a vegetarian meal).

I used white onion instead of red, didn't have orange flower water (but added some dried curaçao orange peel) and I finished the stew with ras el hanout, which makes everything more delicious.


Vegetables: whole.

And chopped. They get roasted for 45 minutes at 375ºF with olive oil, salt, and pepper.


That gets added to tomatoes, chickpeas (which I pre-soaked and then cooked in chicken stock). I added stock to the roasting pan to get all the fond.


Meanwhile, lamb shanks coated in harissa, my current favorite condiment (I might go as far as my new favorite food).


Plate with couscous. So incredibly good.

braised shell and grean beans with parsnips

Bought some shell beans at the farmer's market and wasn't quite sure what do do with them. Made a bland pasta dish and realized they needed more to give them some kick. I sauteéd an onion (cut into eights, intact) with a bayleaf and some whole cloves of garlic (break the cloves up later, once they're soft) until they caramelize a bit. Add a roughly chopped leek and some salt. Add some more olive oil and toss in three peeled, coarsely chopped parsnips. Add some cooking water from the shell beans (probabaly 2 lbs before shelling) and break up the fond. Add mostly-cooked shell beans, a huge spring of thyme and some water or stock and cover. Cook until parsnips and beans are mostly cooked. Add a pound or so of green beans, each chopped in halves or thirds, for uniform size. Cover, cook until green beans are bright and still crisp. Remove thyme and add some fresh leaves. Finish with some butter, salt (if needed) and a generous bit of black pepper.