So Miss Thing had a project this week that she’d been working on for a while. It was based on feudal europe. Apparently, this section is one of her teacher’s favorite, because she really goes all out. The students wear costumes for their presentation, they make up scrolls and props and present them to the class – as well as “bribes” for “their lord” – the Lady Winesalot (rofl!). One of the bribes that Miss Thing and I concocted, after sifting through various feudal europe cuisine articles was for some roasted turnips and parsnips. According to Miss Thing, food in feudal europe was bland and ucky, so her roasted roots recipe (that she made herself – yay her) will not be featured here, as we made no effort whatsoever to make it tasty.

However, I did end up with a parsnip and a turnip left over after she was done making her dish. Of course, I’ve never cooked with either vegetable before, and the dish that Miss Thing made was deliberately bland, and as such was not a good representation of their flavors. Not one to let things go to waste, I decided to chop them up and throw them in this braise I was making with Lamb Shanks and the last carrots from my Farm Box. On the bright side – this dish came out delicious, however – it also, was maybe not the best representation of what exactly a turnip or parsnip tastes like, as the flavors melded together a fair bit. Definitely a good dish to dip your toe in to when trying out different types of roots.

We served this up over some brown rice, but it would be equally good over any other grain. Also – When we had finished eating dinner, I realized that I had quite a bit of leftover lamb shank-infused liquid and Veggies. (approximately 6 cups or so) I didn’t want to throw it out, so while I cleaned up, I added about 2 cups of Brown Rice to the broth and veggies, covered the pan, and returned it to a 350º oven to bake for an hour. I ended up with a nice little dish for another night that I threw in the freezer for dinner later this week.

Ingredients:

• 3 Lamb Shanks
• 1 Parsnip; Peeled and sliced in to 1″ by 1/4″ slices (approximately)
• 2 Turnips; ; Peeled and sliced in to 1″ by 1/4″ slices (approximately)
• 6 smallish Carrots; Peeled and sliced
• 1 Onion; diced
• 6 cloves Garlic; Minced
• 1 Quart Stock
• 2 tbs Clarified Butter
• 1/4 Cup White Wine
• 1/4 Cup Cider Vinegar
• Kosher Salt

Method:

• Preheat Oven to 300º
• In a large dutch oven, with a tight fitting lid, melt the clarified butter over medium heat
• Saute the Onions in the Clarified Butter
• Add all remaining ingredients, taking care to make sure that lamb shanks are fully submerged under broth or veggies
• Sprinkle Liberally with Kosher Salt
• Cover and Roast for 2 hours, or until lamb shanks and veggies are fork-tender
• Serve over Rice or other grain