Friday, January 22, 2010

Happy New Year

It's been a while since I've posted. To kick off the new year, I wanted to share a dish a friend and I made for new years dinner, and I have made 1 other time since. We tested it in our Tante Marie Class on Northern Italian Cooking. It was delicious, easy, and sounds fancy. Thank you Tori for the recipe!!

Also, it's great for weeknight dinner parties. You can make it the night before and just heat it up. It actually tastes better this way.

For new years we served it with a meat lasagne, an escarole salad with meyer lemon and fleur de sel, and garlic bread. The meal was easy to make and delicious. For those of you that have not had escarole, it's delicious. It has a wonderful peppery flavor, similar to endive, but not as strong. I highly recommend you try it, if you haven't already.

Without further ado... Enjoy!!


Osso Buco Classico
Serves 8
Active cooking time: 30 min.
Inactive cooking time: 1.5 hours.

8 veal shanks
salt
pepper
1/2 cup of olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
2 medium onions
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 stalk of celery, diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup dry white wine
1 large (28 oz.) can peeled plum tomatoes
1 teaspoon dry thyme
veal/chicken broth
1/2 cup minced fresh Italian parsley
grated zest of 2 lemons

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

On a plate sprinkle both sides of the veal with salt and pepper and set aside.

In a wide Dutch oven, melt oil and butter together over high heat. When the foam subsides, add enough veal shanks to just fill the bottom of the pan. Do not crowd the bottom of the pan. Leave enough room that the veal shanks are not touching. Brown the top and the bottom well and then set aside. To know when each side is done browning, the veal will easily separate from the pan. If it's sticking to the pan, leave it alone to brown a few moments longer. This will help to seal in the juice and create a lovely carmelization on the bottom of the pan, which will make the sauce richer. Repeat these steps until all veal shanks are browned and then set aside. If the pan gets dry, add more oil and/or butter.

In the same pan, add the onions, carrots, and celery and reduce heat to medium. Salt and pepper vegetables. Cook, stirring until soft about 7 minutes. Trust the look and feel of the vegetables. Do not go on time alone. Add garlic and a pinch of salt on top, and cook 1-2 minutes more. Pour in wine and bring to a boil, stirring. Add tomatoes, broken up with a spoon, and thyme; bring to a boil.

Return the veal shanks and any accumulated juices to the pan. If needed, add enough broth so that the shanks are almost submerged in liquid, but not covered, with liquid. Let return to a boil. Cover Dutch oven with foil then lid to create a good seal, then transfer to oven, until the meat is tender enough to fall off the bone, about 1-1.5 hours.

Transfer shanks to warm platter with a slotted spoon. Boil down pan juices until thickened, then spoon over shanks.

Mix together grated lemon zest and parsley and sprinkle some over each serving.