Chef Frederic's Best

Tahitian Lamb Shanks ~ Best Cooked Naked This dish was created part out of necessity and part out of frustration. It is now a memory of one of the most romantic evenings; and tasty dishes of our lives! While vacationing on the island of Moorea, Tahiti, we ambled out to find a store and cook dinner. It was late and if memory serves, a local holiday. We felt lucky to find a little market open. Although they seemed to specialized in canned goods and ‘not so fresh’ fish we enjoyed walking the isles looking at the local flavors. What we did find was fresh new Zealand Lamb shanks and an abundance of pineapple juice. Hmmm. Once we arrived back at our friends bungalow, which they graciously let us vacation at, we searched the kitchen to find anything to create a meal from the odd starts. As we began, we found several bottles of Cabernet under the counter. We opened one to drink as we pondered the nights menu. The first bottle had turned bad. Not unusual for being stored in a cabinet in the warm Tahitian temps. We proceeded to open another, and another; and finally found a good bottle... 5 opened bottles later! We sipped on the wine and Fred started creating ~ much to my skepticism. The recipe below was born of necessity and of course, local available ingredients. It was so good, I wrote it down and he recreated it in the restaurant the week upon our return - to rave reviews!