I am calling tonight‘s dinner “Why Linda doesn’t have a Cooking Show.” We decided to have a nice dinner Saturday night as Sunday Easter, we are going out to brunch with friends. I decided to make the Barefoot Contessa’s lamb shanks with orzo. It started out great I chopped and diced everything that had to go into that pot.  I put the flour mixture for the  lamb shanks into a big plastic bag. I started to brown the  first two lamb chops.  Ina used a Le Creuset pot which can take higher temperatures then mine so the grapeseed oil started to burn that set off the smoke alarm.  I couldn’t get it to stop and Jim wasn’t home. I opened all the big glass doors and fanned it with both a towel and a magazine.  Finally the alarm company called me and it’s as easy as walking to the panel and punching in the turn off numbers. We’ve lived here for three years and didn’t know that.  Anyway finally get the alarm off; I have all the doors in the house open the dogs running around terrified but finally things begin to come down. So the first to lamb shanks are out and I am dusting in the bag the second two which are larger so I could only do them one at a time. I put the last one in and didn’t seal the bag well and you guested it, flour everywhere on me, in my shoes, on the stove, I mean everywhere. Well I carried on to braze the last two and turned the burner off.  I cleaned me and the kitchen up. In order to continue I needed more paper towels. I went outside to get paper towels grabbed one off the top of the outdoor refrigerator came in.  As I turned into the kitchen, I lost control of the towel roll and it rolled all the way through the kitchen.  It doesn’t end there.  I continue with all the cooking and everything is going fine.  At last all ingredients are in the pot. I have to use the lower oven as the pot with the lid are too tall for the upper oven.  In the lower oven I still had to lower the rack.  I put the pot down in the bottom oven and the rack that I had had to move collapsed. Luckily Jim got home, fixed the rack properly and and dinner went into the oven.  I saw this meal on Ina’s show.  As I read to the bottom of the page, I realized that this recipe comes from her book called Barefoot Contessa Foolproof!  Proved her wrong!

Ingredients:

1 C all-purpose flour

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 lamb shanks (1-1 1/2# each)

Grapeseed oil

2 T EVOO

3 C chopped yellow onion

2 C medium-diced carrots

2 C medium diced celery

1 T minced fresh rosemary leaves

3 large garlic cloves

2 (14.5 oz. cans diced tomatoes, including the liquid)

2 C canned beef broth (mine homemade)

1 1/2 C dry white wine, plus extra for serving

2 bay leaves 

2 C orzo

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
2. Combine the flour, 2 t salt, and 1 t pepper in a bowl or bag and dredged the lamb shanks in the mixture, shaking off the excess.  In a large (13”) Dutch oven and heat 3 T of grapeseed oil over medium heat and cook for 10 minutes, turning every few minutes, until browned on all sides.  Transfer the shanks to a plate, add more grapeseed oil, and brown the remaining 2 shanks.  (If you are using a Le Creuset pot you can go higher with the heat.  However a pot from this company that large would be impossible for me to lift out of my oven.)
3. Wipe out the Dutch oven wit a paper towel, add the EVOO and heat over medium heat.  Add the onions, carrots, celery, and rosemary  and cook for 8-10 minutes, until the vegetables are tender.  Add the garlic, and cook 1 more minute.  
4. Add the tomatoes, beef broth, wine, 4 t salt and 2 t pepper.
5. Add the lamb shanks, arranging them so they’ve almost completely submerged in the liquid.  
6. Tuck in the bay leaves and bring to a simmer on tip of the stove.  Cover the pot and place it in the oven for 2 hours, turning the shanks once while they cook.  
7. Stir in the orzo and return the lamb shanks to the oven for 20-30 minutes, until the orzo is cooked and the lamb shanks are very tender.  
8. Discard the bay leaves, stir in 2-3 T of white wine, and toast the orzo for seasonings.  Serve hot.  

This dish was unbelievably great.  Jim served my favorite wine, Chateau Gloria, 1997.  This would serve 4 very generously with an appetizer.  I was going to make one, but with the start I had, I sat on the porch with a drink and my feet up while it was in the oven.  We had carrot cake for dessert that I bought at Publix.