Elk Shanks

Yesterday, I thawed a package of elk that Rudy the butcher had marked "stew and bones", figuring on meat for Rio and bones for the dogs. To my surprise it disclosed six perfect round elk shanks with marrowbones in the center, rather like the veal shanks used in osso bucco.

I looked at various shank and oxtail recipes and came up with the following. After Madeleine Kamman, I put the shanks in a dutch oven with a cut- up onion, a carrot ditto, some celery, and a small head of garlic with the top cut off. I drizzled it all with olive oil and roasted it in a 375 degree oven for 3/4 of an hour.

I took it out and put it on top of the stove, and added a cup of stock, a half cup of red wine, and a cup more of stock in which I had soaked a handful of dried slices of wild bolete (and the mushrooms of course.) As elk is lean, I added a half of a pig foot split longitudinally, something one local market stocks and which I keep on hand in the freezer for things like this, spaghetti sauce etc., and a sprig of thyme from the garden. I covered the pot and put it in the oven at 250 to cook for the afternoon.

In the evening, maybe 5- 6 hours later, I took it out, removed the pig foot, and cooked it down until the sauce was thick. The meat was falling off the bones. If you want to be more refined you can chill it overnight and remove the fat but it was plenty good as it was. I serve such things (and oxtails, and lamb shanks) over garlic mashed potatos.