Dinner Dates: Wine-Braised Veal Shanks

Today our friend JR came over and he stayed for dinner.
We are continuing meat week with...

Wine-Braised Veal Shanks
Cookbook: The Slow Cooker Collection by Canadian Living

Yay or Nay: Yay! We have been having good luck lately. Nice and moist, we have really yet to try a slow cooker meal that
isn't nice and tender and delicious.

Substitutions and Comments: The recipe calls for veal shanks with the bone in (ossobucco) but we prefer boneless so we purchased shanks without the bone. We also omitted the capers, because Andria can't stand them. To make this recipe gluten-free we replaced the all purpose flour with white rice flour. We noticed that the sauce didn't look nearly as thick as the picture and it is probably due to the substitution of the flour. White rice flour is a lot thinner than regular all-purpose flour. Overall a pretty tasty dish though, the olives really compliment the meat.

Recipe:
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp each salt and pepper
8 pieces veal hind shank
4tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp dried rosemary
3/4 cup white wine
3/4 cup sodium reduced chicken broth
1 tsp grated lemon rind
1/2 cup halved pitted green olives
1 tbsp capers, drained and rinsed
1tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

1. On a plate stir together flour, and half each of the salt and pepper. Firmly tie kitchen string around each veal shank: press into mixture to coat. Reserve remaining flour mixture.

Coated and tied veal

(Sidenote: Tying up the meat holds it together later on. We used a simple tying technique which is just like tying a package. Start out by making a knot lie you are tying your shoelaces, then pull the string vertically and wrap it around the meat perpendicular to the first string. Tie it off with a double knot to close. Feel free to use extra string if there are other parts that look like they might fall apart.)

2. In a large skiller, heat 1 tbsp of the oild over medium-high heat; brown veal in batches. Transfer to slow cooker.

Browing the veal

3. Drain fat from skillet; add remaining oil. Fry onion, garlic, rosemary and remaining salt and pepper over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Scrape into slow cooker.

4. Add wine to skillet; bring to boil, scraping up brown bits from bottom. Scrape into slow cooker along with broth and lemon rind. Stir to combine.

5. Cover; cook on low until shanks are tender, 6-8 hours (Sidenote: Ours took 6 hours only) Skim off any fat. Stir in olives, capers and lemon juice. Move veal and veggies to one side.

6. Whisk in remaining flour with 3 tbsp water; whisk into liquid in slow cooked. Stire to redistricbute ingredients.
Cover and cook on high until thickened, about 15 mins. Sprinkle with parsley.