Veal (or beef) shanks cut across the bone - osso buco - are often braised after initial brief sealing in a pan.
Instead, today's recipe bakes them first for forty minutes and then progressively adds the accompaniments to the cooking process. I prefer it this way; the meat seems to develop more flavour. Osso buco, while a magnificent dish, has become somewhat of a culinary cliche, like spaghetti bolognese; so it is good to try a different way of cooking it.
Place a couple of tablespoons of butter in a large deep roasting pan and place the pan in a hot oven for a couple of minutes until the butter sizzles. Lay six two-inch-thick veal shanks in the pan in a single layer and bake them, uncovered, for half a hour; then turn them over and bake for another ten minutes. They should be well browned.
Remove the pan and turn the oven down to moderate. Add to the pan a cup of white wine, four cups of chicken broth, a teaspoon each of dried oregano and thyme and a tablespoon of grated lemon peel. Now move the shanks around and give the pan a good scrape to free browned bits. Cover pan with foil and bake ninety minutes.
Now remove the pan again, take off the foil and enjoy the escaping aroma. But not for too long: around the meat, add two cups each of arborio rice and water. Bake, now uncovered again, stirring rice and fluid occasionally. Twenty-five minutes should see the rice ready. Check the fluid balance when you stir, add water if necessary. Meanwhile, mix a tablespoon each of parsley and grated lemon rind with two cloves of minced garlic to make a gremolata.
When rice is tender, remove pan from oven, place shanks on serving plates, stir a quarter cup of parmesan through rice in pan and spoon rice onto plates next to shanks. Top each shank and rice with gremolata.
The aroma should now be overpowering. Enjoy with ... your choice of accompaniments. I like creamed spinach.
Instead, today's recipe bakes them first for forty minutes and then progressively adds the accompaniments to the cooking process. I prefer it this way; the meat seems to develop more flavour. Osso buco, while a magnificent dish, has become somewhat of a culinary cliche, like spaghetti bolognese; so it is good to try a different way of cooking it.
Place a couple of tablespoons of butter in a large deep roasting pan and place the pan in a hot oven for a couple of minutes until the butter sizzles. Lay six two-inch-thick veal shanks in the pan in a single layer and bake them, uncovered, for half a hour; then turn them over and bake for another ten minutes. They should be well browned.
Remove the pan and turn the oven down to moderate. Add to the pan a cup of white wine, four cups of chicken broth, a teaspoon each of dried oregano and thyme and a tablespoon of grated lemon peel. Now move the shanks around and give the pan a good scrape to free browned bits. Cover pan with foil and bake ninety minutes.
Now remove the pan again, take off the foil and enjoy the escaping aroma. But not for too long: around the meat, add two cups each of arborio rice and water. Bake, now uncovered again, stirring rice and fluid occasionally. Twenty-five minutes should see the rice ready. Check the fluid balance when you stir, add water if necessary. Meanwhile, mix a tablespoon each of parsley and grated lemon rind with two cloves of minced garlic to make a gremolata.
When rice is tender, remove pan from oven, place shanks on serving plates, stir a quarter cup of parmesan through rice in pan and spoon rice onto plates next to shanks. Top each shank and rice with gremolata.
The aroma should now be overpowering. Enjoy with ... your choice of accompaniments. I like creamed spinach.
Indeed, osso buco has become sort of "run-of-the-mill"....(Somewhere in the world, I'll probably pay for having said that.) I like your version of it...and with creamed spinach!
ReplyDeleteYou have me drooling. This is another one for 'must make' list!
ReplyDelete