What’d You Do Last Weekend?
Make your own bitters.
Oxtail Osso Bucco
We were at Uwajimaya last week and found a huge pack of oxtail for a good price - so we brought it home and decided to try out the whole Osso Bucco thing, something we'd been meaning to try. We got this recipe out of Lidia's Italian Kitchen - it was a veal ossobucco recipe, and modified it to work in the crock pot. At the end of the night there was a rich, velvety sauce to pour over wheatberries, something we substituted for risotto. Perhaps the only strange thing was that we noticed, mid-bite, that the bones were all vertebrae, something I don't think either of us had expected.
Veal Osso Bucco
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 sprig fresh thyme
2 fresh or dried bay leaves
4 cloves
1 lemon
1 orange
1/4 c extra virgin olive oil
1 c finely chopped onions
1 c shredded carrots (chopped worked fine)
1 c finely diced celery
Salt
3 whole veal shanks cut into 4 pieces (we used 1 package of oxtail, probably 1 - 2 lbs total)
Freshly ground black pepper
All purpose flour, for dredging
1/2 c vegetable oil
1 T tomato paste
1 c dry white wine
1/2 c carrot juice
1/2 celery juice (just blend some celery and strain, or use lovage)
2 c canned crushed Italian tomatoes
4 c chicken stock
- Tie the rosemary, thyme, bay leaves, and cloves together securely in a 4" square of cheesecloth.
- With a vegetable peeler, remove the zest from the lemon and the orange, and then juice the orange, reserving the liquid separately.
- In a wide, heavy non-reactive casserole large enough to hold all of the shanks, heat 2 T of the olive oil over medium heat.
- Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until wilted, about 5 minutes.
- Add the carrots, celery, and the cheesecloth bundle of herbs. Season lightly with salt.
- Reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, pat the shanks dry with paper towels. If using shanks, tie a piece of twine around each to keep them together while cooking.
- Season with salt and pepper and coat with the flour, shaking off any excess.
- Divide the vegetable oil between two large, heavy skillets and heat over medium heat.
- Add the shanks to the skillets and cook, turning once, until well browned on both sides (you can do this in a single skillet in batches).
- Add the browned shanks to the casserole with the vegetables.
- Add the tomato paste, stir it into the vegetables and cook, stirring occasionally, and turning the shanks once or twice, for 10 minutes.
- Add the wine and bring to a boil, then add the reserved orange juice, the carrot juice, celery juice, and the orange and lemon zest.
- Bring to a vigorous boil over high heat and boil for 10 minutes.
- Add the crushed tomatoes, reduce the heat to low, and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes.
- Stir in 1 cup of the stock.
- Cover and simmer over low heat, adding stock to keep the level of liquid in the casserole the same, until the shanks are tender, about 1 1/2 hours longer.
- Rotate the shanks in the casserole as they cook.
Notes:
- We served this with boiled wheatberries, which had to cook for nearly 30 minutes on their own.
- Instead of doing steps 4 and 5 on the stove, we put everything into the crockpot and turned it on low. We left it all day, and when we got home the meat was falling from the bones.
- There was a ton of liquid when it was done cooking, so Todd made a little roux and thickened it a little. Eventually, the natural gelatin took over and thickened it the rest of the way.
