Winter cooking has started again

So this last Sunday it was raining in Vancouver (actually something of a rarity over the last 2 months). And although not exactly cold, it was still cool enough to put me in the mood for some kind of stew type dish. I had spotted some lamb shanks in the local supermarket a few weeks ago so thought maybe I would try cooking them for a change.

So I found a nice looking recipe from my Bishop's cookbook and got together a shopping list. Then I fell asleep. I guess I was kind of tired after a late night of card playing on Friday night followed by an afternoon of kayaking fun on Saturday. Eventually I woke up and after a quick chat with Tiffany and putting together some bread dough to rise for my bread rolls, I finally made it out to the supermarket. Given the not so pleasant weather I decided against a trip to Granville Island so just had to make do with whatever the supermarket had. Unfortunately they were all out of turnips and there was no sign of parsnip (not that I was all that keen on using parsnip anyway). They also had no celery root so there were a few ingredients I had to make do without. But they did have the lamb shanks, they are the most important part of any lamb shank recipe.

When I arrived back at the apartment I shaped the bread rolls and let them start their second rise. I hadn't made bread since leaving PNG, it is just so much easier to go to the shop and buy some, but home made bread certainly does smell good and even tastes good sometimes. Once the bread was set to one side to rise I got started on the lamb. Lamb shanks are jolly easy to cook, just season them a bit then brown them nicely then whack them in a casserole dish with some stock and and a bunch of vegetables. Then go talk to your fiance for a couple of hours and dinner is ready.


And the really nice thing about lamb shanks is they taste just as good reheated the next day. So today I had leftover lamb shanks with garlic mashed potatoes. Yummy.