Los Angeles is known for its year-round sunshine.  There has been a few exceptions, but the lack of seasons can sometimes be annoying when you feel like hunkering down and making some great braised meats.  We have had more rain than usual this year. After a sun soaked week on the mayan riviera with my family, i came back to a nice week in LA- although i was secretly hoping for some rainy weather.  This weekend it got cloudy for a day, so i decided to plan my menu based on chillier times. 

I’m having three girlfriends over on monday night to discuss a very important topic:  bethany’s pre-wedding bachelorette weekend in Sonoma.  I am admittedly manipulating this celebration to avoid any talk of hiring a male stripper or going to vegas.  Classy all the way.

We aren’t going until August of this year, but since that is high tourist season, i wanted to get everyone together and discuss the itinerary that i mapped out and make the necessary arrangements-  as well as delegating minor tasks.  I can’t do everything.  But i did find it appropriate to cook a nice meal and get our minds in the mood for a visit to wine country and michelin star restaurants.

i planned this menu based on an overcast, gloomy saturday:

DINNER FOR 4:

endive salad with lentils de puy and lardons and roasted fennel

with shallot vinagrette

braised morrocan spiced lamb shanks with creamy polenta

dessert-  chocolat pot de creme  (kyra brought auntie em’s cupcakes so i skipped out on these!)

Of course, much like getting your car washed and having it rain that same day, i have planned a heavy, wintery menu and the sun is shining and it’s turned into a warm, spring day. Typical.  Nonetheless, since i have already marinated the lamb shanks overnight in a moroccan influenced herb rub, i am going ahead full force.  One trick is to just serve smaller portions for the ladies and omit the rich dessert i was planning.  I’m actually cooking the lamb as i write this.  What a great dish that, although takes a long time to cook, is largely unattended.  I even did some filing and income tax work before i sat down to write.  I’m excited to use my friends as guinea pigs.  this is a newly combined recipe based on one from epicurious and one from chocolate and zucchini. 

i have made lamb shanks a couple times in the past using the traditional braised meat formula-  browning it, fresh herbs, mirapoix, wine and broth, then slow cooked in the oven or on the stove.  Though this formula has done me right for braised shortribs, beef shank and even lamb shank, i wanted to experiment with something that would cut the gamey quality that lamb sometimes has.  The spice rub with cumin and coriander sounds like just the trick.

i can’t capture the smells that im experiencing right now but trust me, this is worth trying, rain or shine.  i  picked up the lamb shanks from the new mega Whole Foods in Pasadena.  That location is amazing. They even have a nut bar with someone attending it.  These lamb shanks were the size of an olympic speed skater’s calves, so instead of getting four, i got three.  There’s gonna be plenty, even for my boyfriend who gets exiled to the garage during girls’ night.  Besides, two of my friends are former vegetarians and would prefer not to see a large bone on their plates!

so hopefully, after a few bottles of wine, cote de rhone would go nicely with this dish, we can all agree on some wineries to visit and restaurants to go to in sonoma valley. largely my suggestion and online research but that makes for another posting in the near future:  trip planning.