Lamb Shank

Lamb is my favorite meat. It can be cooked rare like beef, but it has more flavor. When I am in the grocery store I often keep my eyes out for "cheap lamb meat." This refers to the cuts of lamb that are not as common, such as the neck bone or the shoulder, which usually need to be cooked longer to lose their toughness. Often enough I buy this meat (which is much cheaper than, say, lamb chops) and make a form of ragu`.

This evening, though, I was working with a lamb shank. Since I was out of my usual herbs, I needed to devise another recipe. Lamb is very big in the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of South Asia, so I decided to work with spices commonly used in those regions.

I dug out of my spice cabinet:

• Cardamom
• Ginger
• Cumin and
• Turmeric (more so for the intense yellow color it gives off)

I mixed equal amounts of these spices together (estimate), gave the lamb a light coating of olive oil, and rubbed the spices on. I first seared the lamb shank in a skillet with a bit of olive oil, 5 minutes on each side. Then, the shank went in a 400 degree oven for 40 minutes.

I cut up some potatoes and threw them in the oven alongside the lamb. They were done in ~ 45-50 minutes.

Five minutes before the lamb was done I used the same skillet to saute` garlic in some olive oil, then proceeded to add chopped red bell pepper - just to have some sort of vegetable.