Recipe - Carnero En Adobe - Tangy Braised Lamb Shanks

2 Ancho chilies
1 cup Boiling water
2 tablespoon Vegetable oil
4 Lamb shanks
2 md White onions, halved
1/3 cup Raisins
2 tablespoon Piloncillo, Mexican hard
sauce
4 cup Garlic, minced
3/8 teaspoon Oregano
One half teaspoon Cumin
28 ounce Tomato, whole peeled
Three fourths cup Beef stock
4 Bay leaf
1 tablespoon Cider vinegar
Romaine lettuce, shredded
Black olives, pitted

1. Place chilies in small bowl with boiling water, let stand 1 hour 2. Heat
lard or oil in Dutch oven over med. heat until hot. Add 2 lamb shanks. Cook
turning often, until brown on all sides about 20 minutes. Remove to plate.
Repeat. 3. Place chilies and 1/3 cup of the soaking liquid in a blender and
process until smooth. Discard remaining soaking liquid. 4. Remove and
discard all but 2 TBS oil from Dutch oven. Add onions and saute' over
medium heat about 4 mins. or until soft. Reduce heat to medlow and stir in
raisins, sugar, garlic, oregano and cumin. Add chili puree and cook
stirring constantly for 2 minutes. 5. Add tomatoes, stock and bay leaves to
pan. Heat to boiling. Add lamb shanks and simmer over low heat, covered,
turning occasionally until lamb is very, very tenderabout 2 to 2/12
hours/ 6. Remove lamb to serving platter and keep warm. Skim and discard
fat from cooking sauce. Stir in vinegar. Heat sauce to boiling over
med.high heat and cook uncovered, stirring frequently until sauce is
thickenedabout 10 minutes. Spoon sauce over lamb. Serve, garnished with
lettuce and olives (Maybe even some quartered tomatoes). Accompany with
Refried Beans garnished as desired with shredded cheese and minced white
onions. I recommend with shanks that you clean them as well as possible of
as much fat as possible plus that white membrane. Don't remove all the
membrane, however, as something has to hold them together.

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini