Haven’t had time for much cooking lately – too busy moving – but recently did a dish that is worth noting down. It was a beef shank with caramelized onions
I used cross cut shanks (think osso buco, not the full shank as usually used with lamb recipes). You want one or two per person, depending on size and degree of appetite.
I mixed some dried sage and flour and dredged the shanks and then browned them off in a cast iron pan at fairly high heat and then set them aside.
I chopped a fair bit of onion and sautéed it in a bit of olive oil until it started to show some brown, and then turned it down and cooked it quite a long time (c. 30+ min) until it was fairly dark brown. I added some chopped garlic and cooked that for about 5 min. and then added 15 or 20 fresh sage leaves and some more of the flour mix for thickening, then added red wine (maybe a cup and a half or so, put the shanks back in and added 3 cups of beef broth (I cheated and used cubes as I didn’t have any frozen.
Braised it with a lid on for 1 ½ or 1 ¾ hours (depending on how hungry you are and how long you can wait) and then added a cup or so of frozen green peas. Finished it up with S&P and more fresh sage, and served it in pasta bowls.
A one dish meal that received enthusiastic approval from She-who-must-be-obeyed. Intend to pull that one out again in winter as it suits that weather. Went really well with a bottle of Sicilian Nero d’Avola!
Went digging in my recipe cache and found a couple of similar recipes, usually using white wine and veal shanks, so you can lighten it up to suit your weather or mood, and you could vary the herb used (rosemary would work well, for instance). We didn't serve anything with it, but a loaf of artisanal country bread would be a natural.