Traditional Osso Buco Recipes

OSSO BUCO

Steps:

• In a shallow dish, stir together flour, salt, and black pepper. Dredge meat in seasoned flour. In a large skillet, melt butter with oil over medium heat. Brown meat. Remove meat from pan, and set aside.
• Add onion, carrots, celery, and garlic to drippings in pan. Cook and stir for about 5 minutes.
• Stir in tomato sauce, water, basil, thyme, parsley, and bay leaf. Return meat to pan. Bring to a boil, and reduce heat to simmer. Cover, and cook for 2 1/2 hours.

OSSO BUCO

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Heat vegetable oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-low heat until very hot. Place flour in a shallow dish. Season veal shanks with salt and pepper; dredge in flour, shaking off excess. Working in batches if necessary, add shanks to Dutch oven (they should sizzle immediately). Cook, turning, until browned on all sides, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove veal shanks from Dutch oven and set aside.
• Add onion, carrots, celery, and leek to Dutch oven; cook, stirring, until softened and lightly browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Add bay leaf, thyme, oregano, tomatoes, wine, and stock. Return veal shanks to Dutch oven and bring to a simmer. Cover and transfer to oven; cook, checking occasionally to make sure the liquid is still simmering, until meat is very tender, about 2 1/2 hours.
• Remove from oven and transfer shanks to a platter; cover with parchment paper-lined aluminum foil to keep warm. Place Dutch oven over medium heat; simmer until sauce is thickened, about 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Return shanks to Dutch oven to heat through and coat with sauce. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and lemon zest; serve.

OSSO BUCO

Steps:

• Place the rosemary, thyme, bay leaf and cloves into cheesecloth and secure with twine. This will be your bouquet garni.
• For the veal shanks, pat dry with paper towels to remove any excess moisture. Veal shanks will brown better when they are dry. Secure the meat to the bone with the kitchen twine. Season each shank with salt and freshly ground pepper. Dredge the shanks in flour, shaking off excess.
• In a large Dutch oven pot, heat vegetable oil until smoking. Add tied veal shanks to the hot pan and brown all sides, about 3 minutes per side. Remove browned shanks and reserve.
• In the same pot, add the onion, carrot and celery. Season with salt at this point to help draw out the moisture from the vegetables. Saute until soft and translucent, about 8 minutes. Add the tomato paste and mix well. Return browned shanks to the pan and add the white wine and reduce liquid by half, about 5 minutes. Add the bouquet garni and 2 cups of the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover pan and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours or until the meat is falling off the bone. Check every 15 minutes, turning shanks and adding more chicken stock as necessary. The level of cooking liquid should always be about 3/4 the way up the shank.
• Carefully remove the cooked shanks from the pot and place in decorative serving platter. Cut off the kitchen twine and discard.
• Remove and discard bouquet garni from the pot.
• Pour all the juices and sauce from the pot over the shanks. Garnish with chopped parsley and lemon zest.

TRADITIONAL OSSO BUCO

Steps:

• Dust the veal shanks lightly with flour. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium to medium-high heat. Add the veal, and cook until browned on the outside. Remove to a bowl, and keep warm. Add two cloves of crushed garlic and onion to the skillet; cook and stir until onion is tender. Return the veal to the pan and mix in the carrot and wine. Simmer for 10 minutes.
• Pour in the tomatoes and beef stock, and season with salt and pepper. Cover, and simmer over low heat for 1 1/2 hours, basting the veal every 15 minutes or so. The meat should be tender, but not falling off the bone.
• In a small bowl, mix together the parsley, 1 clove of garlic and lemon zest. Sprinkle the gremolata over the veal just before serving.

OSSO BUCO

Steps:

• Heat oven to 275 degrees. In a 7-quart flameproof casserole or Dutch oven over medium to medium-low heat, heat vegetable oil until hot but not smoking. In medium bowl, combine flour, salt, and pepper. Coat each veal shank well with flour; tap off excess. Working in batches if necessary to keep veal shanks from touching at all, add shanks (they should sizzle the moment they hit the pan). Cook until well browned on all sides, 10 to 15 minutes; do not rush. Remove the veal shanks from the casserole, and set aside.
• Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, bring 2 cups water to a boil. Remove from heat, add dried mushrooms, and let stand until softened, about 20 minutes. Strain mushrooms, reserving 1/2 cup soaking liquid.
• Prepare bouquet garni: Tie bay leaf, rosemary, thyme, sage, parsley, lemon zest, and peppercorns together in a piece of cheesecloth. Add carrots, celery, and onion to casserole; cook until softened and lightly browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Add tomatoes, wine, stock, mushrooms with soaking liquid, and bouquet garni.
• Return browned shanks to casserole; stir gently to combine. Bring to a simmer, cover, and place in the oven; cook until meat is very tender, about 2 1/2 hours. Check occasionally to ensure a gentle simmer; adjust heat or height of rack as needed.
• Transfer shanks to a platter, and cover with foil to keep warm. Set casserole over medium heat; simmer until sauce is thickened, about 15 minutes. Return shanks to casserole just to heat and coat with sauce. Serve hot with broccoli rabe and polenta

CLASSIC OSSO BUCO

Steps:

• 1. Heat the oven to 350°F (176°F/Gas 4). Put the flour on a plate, add generous amounts of salt and pepper, and coat the veal slices, with flour, patting to remove the excess. Heat the oil and butter in a sauté pan or frying pan big enough for all the veal slices to touch the bottom. Add half the slices and brown them over quite high heat, 2 to 3 minutes. Turn them, brown the other side and remove them to a plate. Brown the remaining slices and remove them also.
• 2. Lower the heat to medium, add the onion and carrot and sauté until golden, 5 to 7 minutes. Pour in the wine and boil until reduced by half, stirring to dissolve the pan juices. Stir in the tomatoes, garlic, orange zest, veal stock, salt, and pepper. Immerse the veal slices in this sauce - the liquid should come at least halfway up the sides. Cover the pan and bring it to a boil.
• 3. Braise the shanks in the oven until the meat is very tender and falling from the bone, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Stir from time to time, gently turning the slices, and if the pan seems dry, add more stock. At the end of cooking, taste and adjust seasoning of the sauce. Osso buco can be cooked ahead and stored up to 3 days in the refrigerator, or frozen. Keep it in the pan ready to be reheated on top of the stove.
• 4. For the gremolata, chop the garlic; pull parsley leaves from the stems, and chop the leaves together with the garlic. Stir in the grated lemon zest and pile the gremolata in a bowl. It can be served separately from the osso buco, for guests to help themselves, or sprinkled on the dish just before it goes to the table.

OSSO BUCO

Steps:

• Season the veal shanks with salt and pepper and dredge them in the flour, shaking off the excess. In a heavy skillet heat 3 tablespoons of the butter and 3 tablespoons of the oil over moderately high heat until the foam subsides, in the fat brown the veal shanks in batches, adding some of the additional butter and oil as necessary and transferring the shanks as they are browned to a platter. Add the wine to the skillet, boil the mixture, scraping up the brown bits clinging to the bottom and sides of the skillet, until the liquid is reduced to about 1/2 cup, and reserve the wine mixture in a small bowl.
• In a flameproof casserole just large enough to hold the veal shanks in one layer cook the onion, the carrots, the celery, and the garlic in the remaining 4 tablespoons butter over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are softened and add the shanks with any juices that have accumulated on the platter, the reserved wine mixture, and enough of the broth to almost cover the shanks. Spread the tomatoes over the shanks, add the cheesecloth bag, the salt, and pepper to taste, and bring the liquid to a simmer over moderately high heat. Braise the mixture, covered, in the middle of a preheated 325°F. oven for 2 hours, or until the veal is tender. Transfer the shanks with a slotted spoon to an ovenproof serving dish, discard the strings, and keep the shanks warm. Strain the pan juices into a saucepan, pressing hard on the solids, and skim the fat. Boil the juices for 15 minutes, or until they are reduced to about 3 cups, baste the shanks with some of the reduced juices, and bake them, basting them 3 or 4 times with some of the remaining juices, for 10 minutes more, or until they are glazed.
• Make the gremolata while the veal is baking:
• In a bowl stir together the parsley, the zest, and the garlic.
• Sprinkle the veal shanks with the gremolata, pour some of the juices around them, and serve the remaining juices separately.