Alias Osso Buco Recipes

TRADITIONAL OSSO BUCO

Steps:

• Dust the veal shanks lightly with flour. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium to medium-high heat. Add the veal, and cook until browned on the outside. Remove to a bowl, and keep warm. Add two cloves of crushed garlic and onion to the skillet; cook and stir until onion is tender. Return the veal to the pan and mix in the carrot and wine. Simmer for 10 minutes.
• Pour in the tomatoes and beef stock, and season with salt and pepper. Cover, and simmer over low heat for 1 1/2 hours, basting the veal every 15 minutes or so. The meat should be tender, but not falling off the bone.
• In a small bowl, mix together the parsley, 1 clove of garlic and lemon zest. Sprinkle the gremolata over the veal just before serving.

OSSO BUCO (ITALIAN BRAISED VEAL SHANKS) RECIPE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325°F (163°C). Season veal shanks all over with salt and pepper. If you have butcher's twine, you can tie a length of it tightly around the circumference of each shank; this can help them hold their shape during cooking, but is not absolutely necessary.
• Add butter to Dutch oven, along with onion, carrot, celery, and garlic. Cook, stirring, over medium-high heat until vegetables are softened and just starting to turn a light golden color, about 6 minutes.
• Prepare a parchment paper lid following these instructions . Cover shanks with parchment lid and transfer to oven. Cook for 2 hours.
• Meanwhile, for the Gremolata: In a small bowl, stir together parsley, lemon zest, and garlic. Set aside.
• Carefully transfer shanks to a platter. (Using a spatula and tongs together can help prevent them from falling apart.) Using a spoon, carefully scrape off any excess fat on surface of braising juices. The liquid should be saucy and thick; you can adjust the consistency by adding either water or stock to thin the sauce, or simmering it on the stovetop until more fully reduced. Discard thyme and bay leaf and season with salt and pepper if necessary.
• Remove twine from shanks, if used. Serve shanks on plates, spooning braising sauce on top and passing remaining gremolata at the table for diners to sprinkle as a garnish to their own taste; make sure to offer small spoons for scooping out marrow from bones. Osso buco is traditionally served with Risotto alla Milanese .

OSSO BUCO

Steps:

• Place the rosemary, thyme, bay leaf and cloves into cheesecloth and secure with twine. This will be your bouquet garni.
• For the veal shanks, pat dry with paper towels to remove any excess moisture. Veal shanks will brown better when they are dry. Secure the meat to the bone with the kitchen twine. Season each shank with salt and freshly ground pepper. Dredge the shanks in flour, shaking off excess.
• In a large Dutch oven pot, heat vegetable oil until smoking. Add tied veal shanks to the hot pan and brown all sides, about 3 minutes per side. Remove browned shanks and reserve.
• In the same pot, add the onion, carrot and celery. Season with salt at this point to help draw out the moisture from the vegetables. Saute until soft and translucent, about 8 minutes. Add the tomato paste and mix well. Return browned shanks to the pan and add the white wine and reduce liquid by half, about 5 minutes. Add the bouquet garni and 2 cups of the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover pan and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours or until the meat is falling off the bone. Check every 15 minutes, turning shanks and adding more chicken stock as necessary. The level of cooking liquid should always be about 3/4 the way up the shank.
• Carefully remove the cooked shanks from the pot and place in decorative serving platter. Cut off the kitchen twine and discard.
• Remove and discard bouquet garni from the pot.
• Pour all the juices and sauce from the pot over the shanks. Garnish with chopped parsley and lemon zest.

OSSO BUCO WITH ORANGE-HERB GREMOLATA

Steps:

• Center a rack in the oven, and heat it to 350 degrees. Cut the tomatoes into pieces, and reserve the juice; set aside.
• Heat the canola oil in a Dutch oven (or other large pot) over medium heat, and working in batches, brown the meat on all sides, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and transfer to a bowl as the pieces are browned. Discard the oil.
• Add the olive oil, garlic, carrots, onion and herbs to the pot. Season with salt, and cook over low heat, stirring, until the vegetables are soft but not colored, 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in the anchovies, and cook a minute or two, until they dissolve. Increase the heat, add the wine and boil until almost evaporated. Stir in the broth, tomatoes with their liquid, olives, zest and pepper flakes. Return the meat, submerging as much of it as possible. Seal the pot with foil, and cover with the lid. Slide the pot into the oven.
• Braise for 1 1/2 hours - if the meat is falling off the bone, it's done; if it's not, give it another 30 minutes or so.
• Mix all the ingredients together.
• Serve the meat with the sauce (or refrigerate for up to 3 days; reheat gently). Pass the gremolata at the table.

OSSO BUCO ALLA GINO

Steps:

• Saute onion in half of the butter in a wide shallow skillet until soft and golden. Dust the veal shanks with flour, and then fry them in the same skillet, turning several times until they are golden on all sides. Stand them on their side to prevent the marrow in the bones from slipping out during cooking.
• Add the fresh mushrooms, carrots, celery and season with salt and pepper. Add sage and simmer for 4 minutes. Add the wine and let evaporate. Add the tomatoes and veal stock and simmer gently for about 1 hour, or until cooked and tender. Add more wine if sauce reduces too quickly.

OSSOBUCCO

Steps:

• Soak the porcini for at least 15 minutes in 200ml/7fl oz boiling water. Don't remove the membrane that holds the veal together, but trim off any obviously fatty or lumpy bits. Dust both sides of the meat with the seasoned flour.
• Heat the butter and oil in a very large flameproof sauté pan or casserole over a medium-high heat. When the sizzling stops, put in the veal and fry the slices for 2-3 minutes on each side until golden brown. Transfer the meat to a plate.
• Replace the pan over a low to medium heat and tip in the carrot and celery. Gently fry for 5 minutes until the vegetables have slightly softened, then raise the heat and pour in the wine. Bubble the wine furiously for 2 minutes, then remove the pan from the heat.
• Fish the softened porcini out of the soaking liquid, squeeze out the excess moisture and reserve it. Chop the porcini roughly and add to the sauté pan, together with the soaking liquid. Add the sugocasa or passata and stock, then stir.
• Put the veal back into the pan in a single layer, cover and bring to the boil. Immediately reduce the heat and simmer very gently for 2 hours, turning the veal slices halfway, until the meat is very soft. The liquid should reduce to a thickish sauce, but if it's still thin after 1¼ -1½ hours, half remove the lid to allow evaporation. Serve with the grain 'risotto' (see link, right).

OSSO BUCO

Steps:

• Heat a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat for a couple of minutes. Add the oil, swirl it around, and pour out any excess. Add the veal slices and cook until nicely browned on the first side, about 5 minutes. (For even browning, you can rotate the slices, but try not to disturb them too much.) Turn and brown the other side.
• When the second side is just about completely browned, sprinkle with a little salt and pepper and add the garlic and anchovies to the pan. Cook, stirring a little, until the anchovies dissolve and the garlic browns, about 2 minutes. Add the liquid and let it bubble away for about a minute.
• Turn the heat to low and cover the skillet. Five minutes later, check to see that the mixture is simmering - just a few bubbles appearing at once - and adjust the heat accordingly. Cook until the meat is very tender and pulling away from the bone, at least 90 minutes and probably somewhat more; turn the slices every half-hour or so. (When the meat is tender, you may turn off the heat and refrigerate the dish for up to 24 hours; reheat gently before proceeding.)
• Remove the meat to a warm platter and turn the heat to high. Boil the sauce until it becomes thick and glossy, about 5 minutes. Stir in the butter if you like, and serve the meat with the sauce spooned over it.

OSSO BUCO ALLA MILANESE

Steps:

• Melt the oil in a heavy casserole large enough to hold the veal in a single layer. Dust shank pieces with flour and lightly brown on all sides over medium heat. You may find the browning easier if you do not put all the shanks in the pan at once. Do not allow them to become dark or blackened. Remove the shanks from the casserole and lower heat.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• To the casserole, add onions, carrots and celery and saute, stirring until they begin to soften. Add garlic and saute a minute longer. Add wine and cook over medium-high heat, scraping the pan until all the brown bits clinging to it have dissolved. Stir in the tomatoes, stock and thyme.
• Return the shanks to the casserole, basting with the sauce. Season with salt and pepper, cover and bake in the preheated oven about one and one-half hours until the meat is tender when pierced with a fork. Baste the shanks several times during baking.
• Remove shanks to a serving dish and keep warm. Taste sauce and season with salt and pepper if necessary. If the sauce is too thin (it should be about the consistency of cream), place the pan on top of the stove and boil down the sauce for several minutes.
• Pour sauce over the shanks and top with a little of the gremolata. Pass the rest on the side.