Waiter There's Something In My....Stew

So, it would appear that January is the month for Stew cooking events. Not only is there one being held by Andrew at Spittoon Extra but my friend Shaun at Winter Skies, Kitchen Aglow is the benevolent host for the 12th Weekend Cookbook Challenge!
I always lose out aesthetically on these competitions because I am a SLR photographer at heart and find digital an awkward medium to mix with at dinner parties. However, my husband has encouraged me to keep taking photos of the food I prepare, if only for the sake of posterity, i.e. "remember that meal....no? Well, take a lookie here...." etc.
Here then is our Friday Night Supper, prepared with the kind assistance of Jack Daniels and a couple of dogs who enjoy the smell of lamb cooking.
The recipe is a "made up as you go along" deal. I spent a good portion of the working day scanning Lamb Shank recipes and, taking a pinch here and a teaspoonful there (I heavily altered a recipe from Nigella Bites using Red Lentils), I came up with this: Lamb Shanks with Pearl Barley and Rioja. In fact, this was the first time I had ever cooked Lamb Shanks full stop. I can confirm, here, in writing, that they were entirely successful! Simmered at low heat in the oven in their red wine bath, nestled alongside carrots, celery, onions and some unpeeled garlic, they tenderised to almost the point of collapse. Finally swathed in creamy pearl barley they were almost ready to go to the ball...
Ok, enough metaphors. I served them with Pauls twice blue mashed potato: a vintage breed of potato that is blue to the very core (peeling them is very disconcerting - where do the eyes start and the potato actually begin?) and curiously they turned the boiling water green. Still, they remained blue throughout boiling and throughout mashing, the second blue element coming from a judicial sprinkling of Dolcelatte Blue Cheese and they were the perfect, gentle foil for the rich, rich lamb.
Not a glamourous meal by any stretch of the imagination but suitably fitting for these winter days.