Category: Entrée – Pork
Season: Fall, winter, spring
Occasion: Diner date, dinner with friends, Easter
Wine paring: Pinot Noir
Difficultly: Beginner, quickie
Description: Braised hickory smoked pork shank with creamy garlic mascarpone mashed potatoes.
Pork Shank
2 hickory smoked ham shanks, precooked and smoked
32 ounces of chicken stock
2 sprigs each of fresh thyme and rosemary
5.5 ounces of baby carrots 1 tbs of peppercorns2 lbs butter cream potatoes
Mashed Potatoes
2 cloves garlic
4 tablespoons mascarpone cheese
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon milk
Pinch of salt
Preparation:
1. Pre-heat oven to 350
2. Place ham shanks in Dutch oven.
3. Add carrots, peppercorn herb sprigs and chicken stock. Bring to boil. After boiling is reached, place in oven. Braise about 2 hours.
4. 30-minutes before shanks are done, wash and cut up potatoes into chunks, (leave skin on) place in sauce pan and fill 1 inch over potatoes. Boil at least 10 – 15 minutes. (Don’t worry about over cooking).
5. After potatoes are done boiling, turn off range and drain water. Cover to retain heat.
6. Mash potatoes with masher. Add garlic, butter, milk and salt and mix well. Cover to keep warm.
7. Remove shanks from Dutch oven and set aside and foil to keep warm.
8. Strain remaining stock into measuring cup. Let sit for a few minutes until fat separates. Skim fat from stock and replace stock in clean pan for additional reduction if desired. To reduce quantity for stronger sauce, place on range over medium-high heat and boil until slightly thickened.
Plating:
1. Place potatoes in center of plate. Form into a shallow bowl.
2. Place large shank end in center of bowl. Pour sauce over shank and into bowl.
3. Add carrots from Dutch over to potatoes.
4. Garnish with fresh rosemary sprig.
5. Serve.
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 2 hours (Approximate braising time.)
Advance Prep: Not necessary.
Alternatives: Use sweat potatoes instead.
Smoked ham shank Shanks are leg portions of beef, lamb or pork that tend to be tough and ligament bound. Grocery stores carry individually packaged precooked or smoked ham (pork) shanks that fall off the bone when braised in liquid for long periods of time. This meat has plenty of flavor, but fatty as well, hence the flavor.
Chicken stock This stock is made from boiling chicken bones in water with vegetables, herbs and even wine. The extended simmering extracts the flavors from the bone marrow and stock ingredients into a rich flavorful broth ideal for use in recipes or as base for chicken soup.
Butter cream potatoes These are small thin skinned potatoes that have a light color and creamy interior. They may be hard to find, but well worth the time. Yukon Gold potatoes makes a fine substitute.
Mascarpone cheese This cheese is similar to a cream cheese and usually comes in a plastic tub in the dairy or specialty cheese section of your grocery store. It is creamy and blends perfectly in warmed food preparations like mashed potatoes. It’s made from cow milk and typically soft in flavor and texture.
Carrots Part of the parsley family, carrots are full of vitamin A and helpful in preventing cancer and heart disease, not to mention great for the eyes, so guys, pay attention. Cooking carrots makes the vitamin A more abundant for absorption in the body.
