Foraging in the freezer, I found some venison shanks among the Alaskan delicacies my parents dropped off on their way to Florida in December. I LOVE beef shanks braised in red wine and Mandi happened to have left me some barely-drinkable red wine from some Southern Hemisphere country or other, so I figured I had a plan and ingredients.
I set the oven at 350 F and got some bacon drippings hot in a smallish casserole. I tossed in the shanks, seasoning them as they browned. I threw in some whole allspice and cloves, cumin, cardamon, salt, and pepper. I thought about throwing in some onion but didn’t. Once the shanks were brown I poured in about a cup of the wine, waited for it to come to a simmer, then covered the casserole and put in the oven. After about 20 minutes I turned the oven down to around 300 F, then down to 250 F after an hour. After about another hour the shanks were falling-apart tender. I removed the shanks and reduced the liquid in the casserole into a sauce, filtering out the chunky bits. To serve, I poured over some sauce and added a spoonful of mustard. Some sauerkraut or braised cabbage would have gone with it perfectly.
