More Florida, More Feasting

It was another gorgeous day in Florida. I spent the day shelling, reading, napping, and soaking up some much needed sun. There is nothing like sunshine and salt air for the appetite though. Come dinner time, I was ravenous, and luckily I was in for another lovely meal.
Tonights menu was lamb shanks, a white bean side, sugar snap peas and a pear, gorgonzola and walnut salad.

The salad was truly divine! This salad is one of G-pa's favorites so it always reminds me of time spent with my grandparents. It has such a perfect combination of ingredients!

The lamb shanks were also a real treat! I quizzed my grandmother on her method so that we can avoid another night of disasters. She enjoys lamb shanks because they are quite economical. The real trick is to sear them before baking them in order to get a crispy caramelized outer coating. An added bonus is that this cooks off a lot of the tough outer fat. She reccomends baking them at 350 for 45 minutes (or more to increase the tenderness factor!) and then at 400 for 15 minutes. They are delicious atop the white beans (a recipe invented by G-ma herself), but she also says they are good on brown rice.

And for the recipe de jour, here is how to make those beans!
1) Add 1 chopped sweet onion, 3 cloves worth of minced garlic, and 1/2 cup of chopped carrots to a pan in which oil (or ideally some of the fat used for searing the lamb) has been heating
2) Cover the pan and cook over low heat until the vegetables are softened. You may want to add a bit of chicken broth to aid this process. Periodically scrape the browning off the bottom of the pan.
3) Rinse and drain 2 cans (15.8 oz) of Great Northern bean and add them to the pan. Also add a can of diced tomatos (G-ma prefers Del Monte's blend with garlic in it). Next add 1-2 cups of chicken broth, half the juice from the diced tomatoes, salt, pepper and dried thyme (2 tsp).
4) Put bean mix in a 5 x 10 baking dish. In G-ma's original recipe this was to go with lamb shanks (and this is how we ate it tonight), if you are going for this version arrange the lamb shanks on top.
5) Poke a few bay leaves down into the beans. Check the moisture level, you don't want the beans to be swimming but they should be moist enough to avoid drying out. Cook at 350 for 45 minutes and then at 400 for 15 minutes until beans are creamy and tender!