Braised Pork Shanks

I like to watch “Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives” in order to discover places to eat when we travel and to get meal ideas and recipes.  During one show, a restaurant served braised pork shanks topped with salsa verde but they didn’t provide a recipe.  I searched the web and found a recipe from Food & Wine that seemed to fit the bill with some modifications and I hoped would create this.  I don't know the origin of the dish but since I've had it in German restaurants here and in Germany, somewhere in Europe is likely a good guess.

Before I tried the stand-up shank version, I had used the recipe in early June to cook sliced shanks for a trial run.

I went up to the local Hyde Farm Butcher Shop on Mon with pics of the raw shanks and the dish I was wanting to make and the clerk took them back to the butcher so he could confirm he knew what I wanted before I left.  I picked them up on Thursday and this was how they looked.  I paid $2.98/lb. soup bone prices.

Then I confirmed they would fit the pan I wanted to use.

My recipe modifications began with increasing the ingredient amounts by 50% for my nine shanks vs. six in the original recipe and I added some salsa verde to the cooking liquid.  Finally, I changed the cooking method by using the oven rather than a pan on the cooktop.  The link to the original recipe is in the first paragraph.

Braised Pork Shanks – Adapted from Food & Wine

Ingredients:

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons mild chile powder

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

9 pork shanks, about 1 pound each

3/8 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

3 medium carrots, chopped

3 medium celery ribs, chopped

9 garlic cloves, minced

1½ cup dry white wine

2 cups salsa verde

2 qt salsa verde, divided

6 cups chicken stock plus more if needed

5 rosemary sprigs

3 bay leaves

3 thyme sprigs

Directions:

1. In a large, sturdy resealable plastic bag, combine the flour and chile powder with 1 tablespoon each of salt and pepper. Add the pork shanks, one at a time, and shake to coat thoroughly.

2. In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil until shimmering.

3. Add five of the pork shanks and cook over moderately high heat until browned all over, about 10 minutes.

4. Preheat oven to 350F.

5. Transfer the browned shanks to a deep, heavy pan and brown the remaining pork shanks in the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil; lower the heat if necessary. Add these pork shanks to the pan.

6. Wipe out the skillet and add more olive oil then the onion, carrots, celery and garlic and cook over moderate heat until softened, about 5 minutes.

7. Add the wine and salsa verde and bring to a boil. Simmer until slightly reduced, about 2 minutes.

8. Pour the wine and vegetables over the pork.

9. Add the stock to the pan until the shanks are about 2/3 submerged.

10. Cover with foil and cook in the oven for 90 minutes.

11. Remove from the oven, flip the shanks and return to the oven, still covered with foil.

At this point, I had trouble with the oven so I don’t know how long it took to cook them.

12. Remove the foil and cook until shanks are brown then flip and repeat.  Keep doing this until they are nearly fall off the bone tender.

To serve, add a spoonful of rice to the plate, stand a shank on its end on the rice and top with salsa verde, or pan juices if preferred. 

We decided to have refried beans as a side but had no pintos and didn’t want to make a store run so Bev used Great Northerns.  She cooked and doctored them as usual and while they didn’t taste like pintos, they were very good.

Enjoy the meal.

The Verdict:

Mine looked pretty much like what I was trying to create in the first shot above. This was the meal for our Friday get together and it was a big hit with everyone and the one pound shanks were just the right amount of meat.  Next time, I’ll remove some of the pan juices early and thicken them into gravy for those who don’t want the somewhat spicy salsa verde.  

For dessert, Cindy made a Peach Blueberry pie and Kathy brought a peach cake and a peach pie so we had plenty of dessert.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

07/21/22 meal dates