French Onion-Braised Lamb Shanks With Barley and Greens

The lamb shanks I get all give off a great deal of fat as they cook. So I would skim off fat from the top of the liquid before serving, or better yet, remove the lamb from the finished dish, chill the sauce/barley/greens separately from the lamb, and remove excess fat once the sauce is cold. Then recombine the two parts the next day to reheat.

Buy your meat at the butcher and ask to “crack” the shanks. The butcher will slice through the bone, but leave the ligament attached. The result is the marrow now cooks into the stew and develops the rich flavors unique to lamb shanks.

Very nice recipe. Interestingly, India's Parsis prepare lamb/mutton similarly, browning loads of onion at the start, then browning the meat. But they typically follow up with pressure cooking - an Instant Pot will shorten Step 4 to 40 minutes. Not sure about the need for dry red wine. Dry (brut) is a fancy term for "not sweet": cheap wines often use sugar to mask immaturity/impurities. This recipe, however, benefits from mild sweetness, so even a Trader Joe's "3-buck Chuck" would work.

Suzanne F: Great point. Interestingly, the reaction to lamb fat is culture-dependent. Those who eat lamb rarely if at all find its odor repulsive, but folks in lamb-eating cultures find it appetizing, especially when combined with spices/herbs, and save it for cooking (like schmaltz/lard in European cuisines). An Iranian friend told me that kebab vendors there grill the tails of fat-tailed sheep, and use powerful fans to blast the aroma toward the street to attract customers.

"...cook until the wine is reduced by at least half, a minute or two." How do you turn two cups of wine into one cup in a minute or two?

Certain family members object to wrestling with large pieces of bone-in meat, so I typically remove all the meat from the shanks in stews & return it to the pot before serving. In my family we call this “company style.” I’ll do that here as this recipe definitely looks good enough for company.

I grew up in the Middle East where the only red meat we could regularly get was lamb. Yes, it can sometimes have a strong odor and flavor that is off-putting for some people, but that is often because what is sold here as "lamb" is actually often older and therefore more akin to mutton, which can be very "gamey" in odor and taste. The meat from a true lamb is delicious and delicate, and worth trying to find from a reliable butcher or farmer.

@Richard - RE: Instant Pot vs oven * Using the rule of thumb of 1/3 non-pressure cooking time avoids stringy meat. This works even for drying-prone meats (chicken breast, pork loin) where marination+added fat also helps. * Diligently browning meat & veggies in Steps 1-2 pushes caramelization/Maillard reactions as far as they'll go. * Pressure cooking always needs less liquid because the steam has nowhere to go. You can cook off excess liquid later, but you don't need an oven for that

Can this dish be made with farro?

I rarely follow recipes, use mostly for inspiration. Limited free time so went for it. Used farm (New England) raised lamb shanks, homemade no salt chicken stock. Delicious outcome. Many textures (meat, barley spinach), many tastes (herby meat [extra fresh rosemary], sweet from tomato paste & lamb, earthy from barley, plum notes from the wine. Will make again and maybe use short ribs. Maybe use curry, jasmine rice and slight sweetness from a chutney. Definitely a winner as is, thank you.

Most of the time this is in the oven and it only has a slightly longer prep time compared to other braises with these steps because of the caramelized onions. Flavors take a little bit of time and work to build. If some basic cooking work isn't for you (the steps here to caramelize/deglaze/reduce are the same for braises/stews around the world from bolognese to curry to mole), there's a whole industry of people who will do it for a price.

@Jed - Prices were raised a while ago. I guy I know, who drinks this exclusively, was furious when it happened, but he had little choice but to stick with it. (Aldi's has some $2.95 wines as well - the Moscato and Zinfandels, which are intrinsically sweet, are surprisingly decent.)

Quite nice, really hit the spot on a cold winter evening. I used 3” lamb neck chops rather than shanks, as that’s what the butcher had, and added a dab of anchovy paste along with the tomato paste. Red burgundy wine worked well. Had to be away from home for a few hours while this was cooking, so reduced temp to 250 and cooked an additional hour, no problem at all. Served with mashed potatoes rather than barley. A great take on a classic dish, thank you Kenji!