Recipe: Osso Buco Milanese

Osso Buco is a perfect dish for a romantic dinner for two or for a meal for guests… it requires very little time in the kitchen… you can make it and time it so that it’s finished cooking just before you plan to serve it… all you have to do is plate it…. a terrific idea for Valentine’s Day or that special anniversary.

This recipe is from Tyler Florence... I wanted to make a nice meal for two and not slave like crazy in the kitchen… so I thought I’d give this recipe a try…. I was a little skeptical at first… this recipe uses Marsala wine instead of the usual white wine…. but I really like Marsala and thought I’d give it a try…

The result was absolutely delicious… the meat was so tender… it practically melted in my mouth. The Marsala added a wonderful flavor.

I followed the recipe exactly… yep… absolutely no changes or substitutions… amazing … I know… but I really wanted to see how the recipe would turn out… it turned out delicious!

I get really peeved when people fool with a recipe… it doesn’t turn out like they wanted… and blame the original author… drives me nuts… well since I’m venting a bit…

I also get peeved when people give a recipe 5 stars and then proceed to tell you a million things they did differently… albeit they were inspired by a recipe but what they did was totally different than the original… and can’t rate it properly…

Whew!... now back to the recipe… I have a few tips..

TIPS

Tyler doesn’t wrap kitchen twine around the veal shanks… most recipes recommend that… I agree… even though my twine slipped off during the last part of the cooking process… it really kept the shank intact… otherwise it tends to break apart in pieces.

You can buy kitchen twine at the grocery store... if you can't find it ask an employee... different stores shelve it in different places.

This made a lot of gravy… I made the full amount even though I made only 2 shanks (there was only two of us)…. but the amount of gravy, for even 4 shanks, is a lot.

The gravy is very soupy even after reducing it according to the recipe… next time I will take some of the vegetables and puree them and add them back into the pot… (I thicken my stew that way and it’s delicious).

I did cut out one thing.. . but it shouldn’t affect the recipe… after adding the shanks back to the pan and adding tomatoes and stock… he tells you to drizzle olive oil over it… it isn’t needed… I didn’t want to add any additional grease to the dish…

Okay I made another minor change…. I didn’t peel the tomato… I did seed and chop them.

I used plum (or Roma) tomatoes.

I know this recipe uses a lot of garlic… but it cooks for a long time… so the garlic flavor isn’t strong… don’t cut back on the garlic.

Don’t cut out the Gremolata.. it really adds a nice refreshing flavor …

I chopped the parsley for the Gremalata very fine… I used my mini chopper… I chopped it along with the garlic cloves so they were really chopped well and totally incorporated with the parsley…

I added the parsley and garlic to a bowl and grated the lemon and orange over it and mixed it with a small fork.

Get all your ingredients ready ahead of actually cooking … and cooking is a snap!

I wrote the recipe as Tyler posted it… it serves 4.

I served this with garlic mashed potatoes… it was a terrific combination.

This was simply delicious!








Recipe: Osso Buco Milanese

All you need:


½ cup flour
Salt and pepper to taste
4 pieces veal shank with bone, cut 3 inches thick
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons butter
1 onion, chopped
½ cup carrots, chopped
½ cup celery, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
2 bay leaves
3 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley, finely chopped
1 cup dry Marsala
2 cups veal or chicken stock
2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped

For the Gremolata:

Grated rind of 1 lemon
Grated rind of 1 orange
2 garlic cloves minced
2 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley, chopped

All you need to do:


In a small shallow bowl mix the flour, salt and pepper…. I know it says “to taste” in the ingredients… I used a dash of salt and about 6 turns on the pepper mill… what it means is use however much you tend to like.. if you like it salty… add more than a dash… or if you like things very peppery… then add more pepper.

Dredge the veal shanks in the flour mixture and shake off any excess.

In a heavy skillet or Dutch oven, over medium heat, heat the oil and butter.

Sear the shanks in all sides… you may have to hold it in place with tongs to sear the sizes.

Add more oil and butter if needed (you won’t need it)

Remove the shanks to a plate and set aside.




Add the onion, celery, carrots, garlic, bay leaves and parsley to the pan and cook until soft.






Raise the heat to high and add the Marsala to the pan to deglaze it.

Return the shanks to the pan and add the stock and tomatoes.

Reduce the heat to low and cover.

Cook for about 1 ½ hours or until the meat is tender. (I cooked mine for 1 ½ hours).

Baste the meat a few times during cooking. (I carefully turned my veal shanks over halfway through cooking… be very careful… I turned the meat using a spatula and cooking spoon so I didn’t break the meat off the bone).

Remove the cover and simmer for an additional 10 minutes to reduce the sauce a bit.



To Make the Gremolata:

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl.




To Plate:

Put a generous helping of mashed potatoes in the middle of a plate.

Carefully remove the veal shanks from the pan and onto a plate… remove the string… then carefully move the veal shank to the plate with the mashed potatoes…place the shank in the middle of the potatoes… (I used a spatula to move the shank so I wouldn’t break apart the meat from the bone).

Using a slotted spoon…. Spoon a helping of vegetables from the pan over the meat (make sure you don’t spoon the bay leaf).

Using a spoon, spoon some liquid from the pan over the vegetables.

Add some Gremolata to the top of the dish and serve.