Braised spring lamb shank, with vegetables and a bunch of fresh herbs, over linguine. Oh, and pomegranate juice instead of red wine. Tasty!
(Here's the LJ-only commentary):
I was actually a little worried about this one, at least conceptually. The duck sauce I made with POM juice was sweet, but I also added brown sugar and reduced the hell out of it, and duck goes well with sweet. Lamb has been paired with sweet, too (like that insipid mint jelly junk), but I didn't want anything that was...like... candied. I could almost taste it in my mind, which is how I conceptualize a lot of recipes, and I hoped it would turn out like I was feeling it would.
It worked. There are tannin-like flavors and mouth-feel in the POM, especially when heated, which helped make it taste quite a bit like a fruity red wine was added to the braise. It was indeed sweetish (with a cup of reduced POM juice, there was no way to escape sweet elements to the final product), but not cloying or even as sweet as, say, an Asian sweet and sour or a French gastrique. The zing/spice from the cherry pepper helped a lot, too.
Would I make this again? Yeah, I think I would. It's part of my exploration of meaty braises with pastas inspired by (of all places) a meal on the Olive Garden menu. I've done the bitter-yet-mild coffee-braised buffalo short rib ravioli, and a similar (yet more traditional) red wine lamb shank braise in ravioli. In a once or twice a month kind of way, especially in winter, I'd probably do the more savory versions, but the POM one was fun for a change, maybe for one of those surprise-your-guests kind of twist kind of thing.
Technique and a ton of step-by-step pics at our food blog:
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