I know, I know, I've been slack. Unfortunately when my life gets hectic, certain things tend to suffer. this is also why i am incapable of keeping pets, or growing plants. my cactus is even spiting me. After going all wrinkly due to a lack of water, i put it out one day when it rained. obviously, it started to flower!Anyway, back to the topic at hand: osso buco (osso bucco? it's spelt "bucco" in the book, but i am unsure of the spelling myself, and since i have no idea, i won't even bother commenting).
I went away to the dandenongs on the weekend, to a nice little cottage in kallista. i thought it might be nice to bring some food, something simple for one night, to share over a bottle of red.
as my girlfriend isn't a fan of cooking and leaves me to it, i thought that i would take advantage of that and make something simple. After trawling around, i came onto this post: sarah cooks: osso bucco
I had already bought the tobie puttock book (myer had a 40% off sale) so i thought that i'd give it a go. i'd add the recipe here, but i am not sure if i am able to? i don't understand copyright laws, and i can't be stuffed working it out. after all, it's osso buco - there are 20 million recipes available. basically, you brown the meat (your choice of veal or beef shins, and probably shanks too), and after removing the meat (in the same pot) add some diced vegies, wine, stock, and throw some carbs onto the plate.
i won't bore you with all the steps, but here's some things i found:
- i like garlic. lots of garlic. so mine ended up loaded with herbs and garlic (initially, the recipe didn't have enough garlic in it. i added a few whole cloves too, as i like the flavour and the sweetness of them.
- same with wine - i added a bit more to it because i liked it (and i felt guilty drinking a whole bottle on my own. ok, no i didn't, but i wanted to act like i did).
- there was a bit of a debate about the stock not reducing on sarah's blog, and so i left it cooking for a while longer (i think 5 hours as compared to 3.5 hours). as a result, after chilling it in the fridge, all the juices turned to a jelly! it wasn't a problem as after reheating it was fine, but kinda funny, and a little bit gross.
- For the carbs, i made a polenta mash. i love polenta, but it's so heavy. i ended up making mashed potato with heaps of garlic butter, and then folding it into the polenta, then adding some milk. also, i added chilli powder and a little chicken stock to add to the flavour. it turned out very nice, either reheated, or pan fried, it was like a croquette, and best of all, it soaked up all the yummy juices!
8 comments:
wow, great attempt there james. i couldn't cook anything that took that long! the polentamash sounds yummy!
that's why there are no pictures of the osso buco in the roasting pan - i finished cooking it at 3am! (i only decided after work i'd make it)
maybe that was a bad idea lol
Yo yo,
That looks so yum! I absolutely love that recipe. I'll have to try it with polenta next time. I've got a pack sitting in the pantry that I haven't gotten around to yet. :)
About the gravy - it's normal for any stew or gravy juices to turn jellied after chilling in the fridge, even if you only cook it for the time specified in the recipe. It's due to the gelatine in the bones/marrow. When I'm organised (not often), I like to cook stew the day before and let it chill so I can scrape off the excess solidified fat. The juices will pretty much always be jellied.
So it's a totally normal and expected reaction! :)
xox Sarah
yeah, i thought it had something to do with cartilage for some reason, and assumed it was ok, as it reconstituted just fine ;)
i was going to add all the pics of the process, but they're not as nice as the finished product. i think it worked well - definitely well received!
i had the polenta in my cupboard for ages and just wanted something easy to do with it. be carefull though - i used excess stock, and it was a little bit too strong, so i'm not sure -on it's own the polenta is bland, but it takes on any flavours very well.
all my osso buccos come with just plain potato mash. adding polenta will give it that nice little touch of richness, i think. wonderful!
and you cubed the mash! interesting.
Hi James,
Just had a thought about polenta: I never used to eat it very much because, like you, I found it quite heavy. I was going through my archives on my other blog and came up with this post.
http://sarah-discovers-how-to-eat.blogspot.com/2006/04/autumn-lunch-for-3.html
That's a Nigella method for cooking polenta in the oven; thought you might like to give it a try if you've got any polenta leftover. It was a while ago that I made it, but I remember being surprised that it tasted really nice, hehe.
xox Sarah
xox Sarah
i'd like to try it, but i ran out of polenta - i'll have to wait until i go to casa ibetrica to get more.
i have some masa harina though, so i think my next project will be tamales.
add these pics to the flickr food porn group! fantastic james! xoxo
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