slow now – osso bucco

Making osso bucco on a cold, slow Sunday in pajama pants with a glass of red and the fire on – good idea? I think so!

With my blog book currently MIA and a recent blog birthday I thought it might be a good idea to re-share this early recipe. Enjoy;

osso bucco

4 thick or 8 smaller slices veal shin (latest time I have made this I had 2 largish and 4 smallish)

salt (add once sauce has reduced if adding capers or using your own passata or stock)

freshly ground pepper

50 g (good couple of knobs) of butter

2 tbs (good slosh) of olive oil

1/2 cup dry white wine

250 g tomatoes (peeled if you desire) and roughly chopped or 1 X 400 g can of tomatoes. I used a 400ml home made batch of passata which worked a treated too.

6 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

2 cups of stock (homemade is best – recipes to come in the near future) or water

gremolata (finely chopped parsley, lemon zest and salt) to serve

polenta (it is GF but make sure packaging says GF if you are GF) or desired form of potatoes (mash, boiled, roasted) to serve

 

For more flavour we have added:

2 small brown onions roughly chopped

whole dried oregano (rigani – can buy from Greek stores or dry your own from the garden if you grow oregano)  – 1-2 of oregano on the stalk or a tbs or so of loose dried oregano

whole dried chillis – depends how much heat you want. Start with 2 the first time, I added in 6 when I recently made

capers, drained, palmful or to taste

2 celery stalks finely sliced

1 carrot finely diced

 

Roll veal in seasoned flour.
Brown in the butter and oil in an enamelled cast-iron dish (casserole, round or oval).
Arrange in a single layer (as best you can) with the side that has the most marrow visible.
Pour on wine and allow to bubble up quite strongly.
Add tomato, garlic, onion, oregano, chilli, celery, carrot and enough stock to barely cover the meat.
Cover and simmer for 45 minutes on top of the stove.
Check that meat is still covered with sauce – if not add a little more stock or water. Be sure to scrap wooden spoon on the bottom to make sure meat doesn’t stick.
Cook for another 30-45 minutes – by this time the sauce should have reduced and become thick and the meat should be tender.
If the meat is not ready cook for a further 15-20 minutes.
If the meat is ready, but sauce is not thick enough – take the meat out and reduce the sauce with the lid off. Put the meat back in when sauce is ready.
At this point, add and stir in the capers. Leave for a few minutes.
Then taste for salt and pepper. Add to taste if necessary.
Serve with polenta or desired form of potatoes. Sprinkle with gremolata.

To freeze for enjoying later, portion into plastic containers, label with the meal and date, freeze. Take out of the freezer for dinner during the working week, re-heat on the stove top, cook up some polenta, pasta or potatoes and you have yourself a comforting and satisfying working week dinner, without all of the dishes! If serving with pasta, you can chop up the meat and toss through the pasta.