moroccan braised lamb shanks: what they don't tell you

Made "Moroccan Braised Lamb Shanks" from marthastewart.com today.  The ingredients in the recipe all made sense but the total typical cooking time was not specified.  Also, it wasn't clear whether to cover the pan or not, but since the recipe mentioned "until the sauce has reduce somewhat", I assumed the pan should be uncovered.  In the end, it was 5 hours at 325 for the mean to be "falling off the bone".  Turn after the first hour and then every 30 minutes or so.  In other words, this a good one to make when you'll be home anyway.

Starts off looking like this with the shanks (no browning!) about half submerged in the braising liquid:

After an hour and half, still not too inspiring:

But after a total of 5 hours:

Great colour, tastes amazing.  Don't bother trying to strain the sauce.  Just tip the pan to pool the sauce at one end and use a spoon to push the fat out of the way.  They serve it with seared baby fennel, a wheat berry salad and minted yoghurt.  Haven't got that tonight so it'll be couscous and blanched green beans tossed with extra virgin olive oil.

This dish would also scale easily to a dozen shanks in a larger roasting pan.  This technique is very similar to one proposed by Alice Waters in The Art of Simple Food for pork shoulder with chiles (the half-submerged lid-off braise).

steamed mussels in white wine

This one is in high rotation Chez Hogg: Burn some chopped onion, carrot, and celery in a few tbsb of butter. Add 8-ish ounces of white wine, bring to a boil. Add 2lb of ice-cold, rinsed mussels. Boil/steam until all the mussels are open and plump (and give them a few more minutes after that); should take less than 15 min.

Partition mussels into shallow bowls, and then finish the soup with (lots of) salt, pepper, parsley, and (optionally) cream. Pour soup over mussels in the shallow bowls. Top with a bit more parsley and finely chopped fresh onion or shallot.

Serves four with french fries or salad or eight as a first course for something. Can be expanded arbitrarily (as we learned on Christmas Eve this year). Also consider adding curry to the soup, or harissa.