Osso Bucco (A Winter Favourite).

Perfect for those cold winter evenings is a delicious Osso Bucco. I have to be honest, I have only ever made one Osso Buco once before, so I continue to refine the recipe. But I must say, this turned out extremely well, so I decided to publish it. I deviate a little from the traditional Italian versions because I wanted to cook on a thick bed of vegetables, which would slowly break down and mix with the veal shanks and bone marrow to create a gorgeous thick rich gravy.

Osso Bucco is a very slow cooking dish. It should take between 3 - 4 hours to cook on the lowest possible setting on your cook top. This is the type of dish, you start cooking at 3pm to serve for 7pm.

This recipe serves three people (one veal shank each). Just add more shanks for extra persons.

Ingredients:

• 3 x veal shanks (around 800 grams with bones will end up about 500 grams when the bones are finally removed)
• 1 x medium onion
• 2 x stick of celery
• 3 x small potatoes
• 10-15 fresh mushrooms
• 1 x large carrot
• 1 x clove of fresh garlic
• 2 x bay leaves
• 1/2 a bunch of freshly chopped basil leaves (about 50 grams)
• 1/2 a bunch of freshly chopped flat leaf parsley (about 50 grams)
• 10 x twigs of thyme (tripped off the twig by gripping between your fingers and pulling out the twig).
• 1 x cup of white wine
• 2 x cups of Massels Beef Stock
• 1 x 200 gram tin of chopped tomatoes.
• 2 x dessert spoons of corn flour.
  

Method:

• Before we start, a word to the wise... Choose your saucepan / fry pan well. As I kept adding vegetables, it took me a few goes to get the fry pan right. If you're going to fill yours with vegetables (like I did), then use a deep fry pan with a heavy base and a lid about twice the size you needed to fry the shanks.
• Prepare your vegetables first. Really try to finely chop all your vegetables to help them to break down. Finely chop one onion, one carrot, two sticks of celery, three tiny potatoes, 1 clove of garlic and your 10-15 mushrooms and place them all in a bowl to one side.
• To start, heat a fry pan with a mixture of olive oil and butter. Fry your veal shanks for 1 minute either side. They should be a beautiful dark brown colour on the outside and rare on the inside. When they are done, take them out of your fry pan and place on a plate to one side.
• Tip all your vegetables in to the fry pan and stir to pick up all the juices from the shanks. Place your lid on the fry pan to sweat the vegetables down for three to 4 minutes. The mushrooms will particularly help with the sweating process as they tend to release a lot of liquid.
• While you're waiting, finely chop your bunches of parsley and basil leaves and add them in as well.
• Now place your shanks back in amongst the vegetable mix and pour over one tin of chopped tomatoes, one cup of white wine and two cups of Massel's Beef stock. Lastly, and add two bay leaves. You should be thinking it's too much liquid. This is deliberate. It's going to cook on low for a couple hours and will reduce over time. The extra liquid at the start should prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pan. By now, it should be smelling wonderful. Place your lid on the pan and resist the temptation to remove it for one hour.
• After one hour, remove your lid and taste the gravy (which is probably quite watery at this stage).
• Season with salt and pepper to taste. Give the mix a light stir and turn the shanks.
• Replace the lid and cook for another 45 minutes.
• After the 45 minutes, remove the lid and taste the mix again. Use this time to adjust the flavours (seasoning).
• Now this time, leave the lid off and increase the heat slightly so it comes to a light boil. (You want to start reducing the liquid).
• After a couple of hours you should find the beef just falls off the bones and begins to shred and mix in with all the vegetables. That's when you know it's almost done (but not quite).
• Add 2 x dessert spoons of corn flour to half a cup of beef stock and stir it through vegetables.
• Grate the zest off one lemon straight in to the gravy.
• Stir every five minutes to prevent the gravy sticking to the base of the pan.
• Cook for a further 30 minutes before serving. (During this time, the gravy should continue to thicken and the hint of lemon should permeate).

Serving:

• Ladle a generous serve in to a soup bowl and serve with our favourite fresh bread and an extra glass of that white wine yo added at the start.
• Especially enjoyable on a cold winter's evening.

Osso Bucco cooking in the pan (after 1 hour)