In past posts, I have written about my very bad habit of heading off to the grocery store before making a list of ingredients I need, before I select a recipe. Well, it happened again last night, on New Year’s Eve! When will I learn?! :) (Thank goodness I had a couple Ahi filets thawed out in the fridge – quick! Make Ina Garten’s tuna salad!?!)
The menu plan for New Year’s Eve was going to be steak, sweet potatoes and greens of some kind – sauteed swiss chard, roasted broccoli, roasted brussels sprouts – something along those lines.
The meat selection at Whole Foods had already been picked over by the time I got there, but then the butcher put out several packages of grass-fed beef shanks. I grabbed 3 packages, then Googled “beef shanks recipes” to see what else I might need to prepare them. Grabbed some stock, a bottle of wine, some herbs, three Valrhona dark chocolate bars – oh wait, that was just me impulse shopping – and headed home to start braising and bidding farewell to 2011.
I started with an Emeril Lagasse recipe for braised beef shanks that called for dredging the beef in flour and seasonings, which I did and then promptly regretted. ACK! Why did I just ruin good grass-fed beef with white flour?!? Conflicted much!?
So I scraped it off as best I could and went back to the Oracle of Google for recipe guidance. Adding the word “paleo” to my search sent me in a much better direction: to the Balanced Bites website (remember that 21-Day Sugar Detox I did after Halloween? Same website:)
Easy Recipe: Crockpot Braised Beef Shanks
Diane’s recipe was much simpler and easier to follow than Emeril’s, not to mention healthier! I don’t have a slow cooker so I prepared them in the oven at 350 degrees for about 3.5-4 hours, and I added 2-3 cups of roughly chopped carrots to the pot as well. I turned the beef shanks every 30 minutes. When the meat is falling off the bone and your house smells like an expensive restaurant, you know you did something right! 
I recommend preparing the beef the day before you plan to serve them, much like you would braised short ribs. Because these are such fatty cuts of meat, there is a LOT of fat in the braising liquid and everything will taste/feel like – well, an oil slick. After cooking, let them cool and then put them in a glass container in the fridge overnight. The next day, you can easily skim the solidified fat right off the top. But don’t worry, the braising liquid still retains plenty of fatty delicious goodness;) AND MARROW. Oh my gosh, scoop out the insides of the bones. I gave one bone’s worth of marrow to the dog and this little Varmint was under my feet for the rest of the night:
“Please may I have some more bone marrow?” – the boy
I served the braised beef shanks over a bed of mashed cauliflower. I use this recipe from EatingWell.com on a near-weekly basis, using their “sour milk” instead of buttermilk tip.
For another side dish, I was inspired by our Christmas dinner at Wit & Wisdom in Baltimore and did a combination of roasted vegetables: sweet potatoes, brussels sprouts, butternut squash and – wait for it – apple! Such a cool idea! I tossed everything in a little melted coconut oil and roasted them at 425, tossing every 5-10 mins for even roasting. Now, Wit & Wisdom included giant chunks of pancetta in their roasted veggies, and they were absolutely glistening in copious amounts of oil and/or butter. See? 
So I didn’t recreate them completely, but my version was pretty darn good! I only added half a granny smith apple and will definitely add more the next time! (Oohhh – breakfast idea alert: these roasted veggies with a poached egg on top. OH HECK YES!)
Q: Have you ever tried to recreate a dish you had at a restaurant? Were you successful or was it an epic flop? Share in the comments section below!
Aside from the accidental flour dredging episode, this meal was almost Paleo/primal-friendly – well, except for the half & half I put in my mashed cauliflower! If you’re cutting out grains and/or going gluten-free, you’re in luck here too. A hearty, satisfying winter meal – even if it IS 60 degrees on New Year’s Day
