Marks Osso Buco Alla Fiorentina Recipes

MARK'S OSSO BUCO ALLA FIORENTINA

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Sprinkle the veal shanks with salt and pepper. Spread about 1/2 cup flour on a plate, and dredge the shanks in flour, shaking off any excess.
• In a heavy ovenproof pot with a lid, heat vegetable oil over medium heat. Add the shanks, and cook until lightly browned on both sides, turning once. Transfer to a plate, and turn off the heat. Using paper towels, carefully wipe out the pot.
• Add olive oil to pot, and heat over medium heat. Add carrot, celery, and onion, and cook until the onion is wilted, about 3 minutes. Add the shanks and tomatoes, wine, stock, thyme, sage, or oregano, zest, and salt and pepper to taste, and bring to a simmer. Cover, and bake about 2 1/2 hours, until the veal is very tender. Taste for salt and pepper, and serve immediately.

OSSO BUCO MILANESE

Steps:

• In a large shallow platter, season flour with salt and pepper. Dredge the veal shanks in the mixture and tap off any excess. In a large heavy skillet or Dutch oven, over medium flame, heat the oil and butter. Sear the shanks on all sides, turn bones on sides to hold in marrow. Add more oil and butter if needed. Remove the browned veal shanks and set aside.
• Add onion, celery, carrots, garlic, bay leaves and parsley to the pan and cook until softened. Season with salt and pepper. Raise the heat to high, add the wine and deglaze the pan. Return the shanks to the pan, add the stock and tomatoes, drizzle with olive oil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and cook for about 1 1/2 hours or until the meat is tender. Baste the meat a few times during cooking. Remove the cover, continue to simmer for 10 minutes to reduce the sauce a bit.
• For gremolata: combine all ingredients together in a small bowl. Strew the gremolata over the osso buco before serving. Serve osso buco with Saffron Risotto.
• In a saucepan, bring chicken broth to a simmer. Keep warm over low heat.
• In a large saute pan, melt butter over medium heat. Add oil and rice and cook for 2 minutes, stirring to coat each grain. When rice begins to make a crackling sound, add saffron threads. Add 1 cup of the warm chicken broth and cook, stirring, until the rice has absorbed the liquid. Add the remaining broth, 1 cup at a time. Continue to stir, allowing the rice to absorb each addition of broth before adding more. Test the rice for doneness, it should be al dente but creamy. Remove risotto from heat, add grated cheese, salt and pepper. Serve at once with Osso Buco Milanese.
• Yield: 4 servings

OSSO BUCO

Steps:

• Season the osso buco generously with salt.
• Coat a wide, flat pan generously with olive oil. Bring the pan to a high heat and add the osso buco to the pan and brown them very well on all sides.
• In a food processor puree the onion, celery, fennel, and garlic to a coarse paste. When the osso buco is well browned on all sides, remove from the pan and reserve. Ditch the excess oil from the pan and add a little new oil and bring to a high heat. Add the veggies to the pan with a pinch of crushed red pepper, season with salt, and brown them very well. Do not skimp on this step - it will take awhile, and that's ok. Add the tomato paste and cook until it starts to brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the wine and reduce by half.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
• Return the osso buco to the pan. Add water so the liquid becomes even with top of the meat. Taste the liquid and season with salt if needed. Add in the bay leaves and thyme bundle. Bring the liquid to a boil, cover, and put the whole pan in the oven.
• Cook the osso buco for 1 hour. Pull the pan out of the oven and check the liquid level and the seasoning. Add more liquid, if needed, return the pan to the oven, and cook for another hour.
• Remove the lid and cook for 30 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven, remove the osso buco, and hold on a serving platter. Skim the fat off the surface of the sauce, if needed. Taste the sauce and adjust seasoning.
• Remove the string from the osso buco. Serve the osso buco with sauce spooned over. Garnish with Gremolata. Serve with a demitasse spoon to scoop out the marrow.
• Combine all ingredients in a small bowl.

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.

ALIA'S OSSO BUCO

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
• Mix flour and parsley in a bowl; season with salt and pepper. Dip veal shanks into flour mixture, shaking off excess flour.
• Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Fry veal in hot oil until browned, about 10 minutes; transfer to a large baking dish. Return skillet to stove.
• Cook and stir onion, carrots, and celery in the skillet used to fry veal until vegetables begin to brown, about 5 minutes. Transfer vegetables to the baking dish and pour wine into the skillet. Bring to a boil, scraping up any browned bits from the skillet. Reduce heat to medium-low and continue to simmer until wine is reduced by half, about 5 minutes.
• Stir tomatoes, thyme, and bay leaves into wine. Simmer until tomatoes are hot, about 10 minutes. Pour tomato mixture over veal and vegetables. Stir to combine. Cover baking dish with aluminum foil.
• Bake in the preheated oven until veal is very tender, about 90 minutes.

BEEF OSSO BUCCO

Steps:

• In a large resealable plastic bag, combine the flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper. Add beef, a few pieces at a time, and shake to coat., In a large skillet, brown beef in butter and oil. Transfer meat and drippings to a 6-qt. slow cooker. Add wine to skillet, stirring to loosen browned bits from pan; pour over meat. Add the tomatoes, broth, carrots, onion, celery, thyme, oregano, bay leaves and remaining salt., Cover and cook on low for 7-9 hours or until meat is tender. Discard bay leaves., Skim fat from cooking juices; transfer juices to a large saucepan. Bring to a boil. Combine cornstarch and water until smooth; gradually stir into the pan. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened., In a small bowl, combine the gremolata ingredients. Serve beef with gremolata and sauce. If desired serve over polenta.

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.