Suddenly, its like its winter.
After the record stretch of days over 30 degrees celsius, all of a sudden we have single figure lows, the heater is on, as are the scarves and beanies.
The cooler weather brings a warmth to my heart though, it calls out the name of stews, casseroles, home baked pie. There is nothing I love more than caramelising a chunk of meat and leaving it in the oven / stove top to simmer away, wafting its flavours down the street.
As luck would have it, the weekend wander down to my new Mont Albert Butcher brought home some beautiful oyster blade to be made into Sri Lankan curry (with dahl and flatbread, how else). Also featured, veal osso bucco.
Veal osso bucco is quite difficult to get around town, most often the only availability is beef osso bucco. While it is a great cut, nothing compares to the sweet tenderness that veal brings.
The detail
Serves 4, medium cost (veal osso bucco is quite expensive, beef is very cheap and works NEARLY as well), low difficulty
Ingredients
Like the bolognaise, this recipe changes with every cooking.
- A large glug of quality extra virgin olive oil
- half a kilo of veal osso bucco
- flour
- 1 onion, diced finely
- 2 cloves of garlic, diced
- 1 stick of celery, diced
- 1 carrot, diced
- 4 mushrooms, diced
- 3 anchovies
- a big healthy splash of red wine
- 30ml (or a small can / tub) of tomato paste
- a 300-500ml jar of passata (made fresh a few weeks earlier)
- a fistful of fresh herbs (planted new herbs recently, now growing oregano, thyme, basil, sage and rosemary. Throw all of them in except for the basil which I find makes it too sweet)
- 3 bay leaves
- Veal or Beef stock as required (okay, I don’t make veal stock and have never seen it sold anywhere)
- Salt and pepper
Method
- Heat the oil in a large, heavy casserole dish
- Season and flour the osso bucco and cook off in the pan (in batches), turning to get the beautiful caramelisation (is that a word?) all sides, adding more oil if required.
- Set the meat aside and add the onion, celery, carrot, mushrooms, garlic and anchovies.
- Fry off gently for around 5 minutes
- Deglaze the pan with the red wine, making sure you boil off the alcohol. Pour yourself a fish bowl sized glass.
- Add the osso bucco back in with the herbs, tomato paste, passata, bay leaves and stock. You want to just cover the meat. (I so often put too much stock in).
- Bring back to boil then reduce to a light simmer for around 3 hours, stirring occasionally
- The meat will be ready when it falls off the osso bucco. Check for seasoning (the anchovies / stock will add some salt to the dish)
- Traditionally served with a saffron risotto and a gremolata on top… but who pays attention to traditions anyway!
Good enough to eat!
ALMOST emptied the plate…
johnsonskitchen 
Inspired! Love the bone picture.
It was great, I let it sit overnight after I cooked it and the flavours developed even more!