Free Range Friday ~ Osso Bucco

My brother likes to play with food as much or more than I do. He also has a very twisted sense of humor and enjoys visually torturing me with photos of food that he knows I can't get here. The flip side is we usually go out for or cook those very same foods when we're together, so I guess it balances out. Sort of.

This morning's torture was an ad from Penn Dutch for lamb shanks, on sale for 1.99 a pound, with once sentence. "You should be here." Well, I will be there, but the sale will be over. Too bad for him, we'll get some anyway and make osso bucco. Yes, I know it is traditionally made with veal shanks but I like lamb more than veal and the dish can take the stronger flavors, so there!

Flash Sale  Lamb Shank  Regularly $4.99/lb Now $1.99/lb with this coupon

Of course, that led me to look up osso bucco recipes, because I've only made it once before by myself (a few times with a cooking friend, but she was the lead and I was the prep person, so it isn't the same). Even though it's a basically simple dish (and supposedly more of a winter thing), it takes some patience, but oh so worth it!

Traditionally, osso bucco (meaning bone with hole in it, it's all about the marrow) is made without tomatoes, which is fine by me, but finding a recipe without them wasn't happening. I'll know the results of this particular recipe when I get to the states but for now, it sounds good to me!

Ok, Jonny, the gauntlet is thrown down!

Osso Bucco (adapted from Dellalo and The Guardian)

Ingredients:

• 4 (3-inch-thick) lamb shanks, a bit more than 1 pound each (have your butcher cut the shanks into three inch pieces, unless you have a meat saw and strong arms)

photo credit: Epicurious

• Salt and pepper
• 2 ounces all-purpose flour
• 3 ounces butter (3/4 stick)
• 1 (2-ounce) slice pancetta - cut into small cubes (no pancetta? (you can use bacon, but if you can get lamb shanks, you can probably get pancetta (all about pancetta). Some recipes use butter only, without the pancetta, it's your call. I think it sounds like a good addition.
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 4 sage leaves
• 1 celery stalk, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, finely chopped
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 2 cups homemade or store bought stock (veal, beef or chicken)

Gremolada: (a fancy name for a very simple thing)

• 1/4 cup finely chopped Italian flat-leaf parsley
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 2 cloves garlic, minced  

Directions:

With a sharp knife, make two vertical cuts in the thick skin that surrounds each ossobuco to prevent the meat from shrinking. Tie up each piece separately with kitchen string—very simply forming a cross—in order to keep the meat together. Season the shanks all over with salt and pepper. Lightly flour each ossobuco on both sides.

In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the pancetta and cook until brown. Remove the pancetta and set aside. Place the veal shanks in the pan, cook on high heat and brown the meat well on all sides. Remove the veal and set aside.

Turn the flame down to medium and add the onion, celery and carrot and sage leaves; gently braise for 8 minutes, until just softened. Return the pancetta to the pan and add the crushed tomatoes. Slowly add the wine and stock, Cover with a lid and bring to a boil. Place the shanks back into the sauce and reduce heat to a low simmer.

The slow braising should take approximately 2 to 2 1/2 hours, until the meat is falling off the bone. Turn the meat repeatedly, adding some broth if the sauce gets too thick. Taste for salt and pepper half way through, add if needed.  Remember to frequently mix the sauce with a wooden spoon, and baste the meat occasionally.

To make the gremolada, loosely mix parsley, lemon and garlic. Once the veal is fully cooked, place a bit of gremolada inside each hole, where the marrow has almost completely dissolved. Serve this dish with Risotto Milanese.

Serves 4

This is usually served with saffron risotto, polenta or  saffron rice. A light salad would also go well with it. Good luck and buen provecho!

Have a flowing feast of a Friday. Do something favorable.

Free Range Friday ~ Veal Stew and Orchids

Don't be silly, I did not cook veal stew with orchids in it. You try coming up with titles most every day - even though I've been quite the slacker lately. But that was because, as I was going to post last week's FRF, all my photos went poof. And then, after figuring out how to get them back 

Note: If something goes awry with your computer, after your initial freakout but before calling your guru, google the problem - unless of course, you can't, in that case, get somewhere that you can. Oftentimes, though it takes a bit longer, someone out there has had the exact same problem and someone has a solution. I try to hold off on completely freaking out until I realize that without outside intervention, my computer is basically a doorstop. 

a few days had gone by and lo and behold, the days kept going by until here we are again. Which means I have a few things in my out basket to still post from then and this is sort of one of them. The orchids came later.

I'm not sure what happened with this photo of orchids in a neighbors, except being interrupted by a dog pushing me, but I liked it.

The other day I was in Milka's and ran into Alicia. How many times are you in a store here and run into someone who is a kin, a mental soulmate - no, not on some intimate spiritual plane - rather, yes, someone who gazes into the coolers and onto the shelves of our local markets with that look you know says "Did the food fairies bring anything new here? ANYTHING?" She told me about this stew she had made the other day. Veal stew. 

Around Culebra (and I know I've said this before but it is always new and always true), if you hear about something like veal stew, it is tossing fish guts to seagulls. Souped up race cars and lasers don't move as fast to hone in on a new food stuff. VEAL? Like a guide leading the halt and lame she led me to the cooler, translated the word on the package and made sure I got a good one. She gave me her recipe. The only thing she didn't do is take me home and cook it for me. Which, if you've tasted her food (and most likely you have if you've been around or come to Culebra for any length of time, via the old incarnations of The Spot) would have also been fine. 

But it would have left out playing with food myself. And she would have added carrots and I am sorry to say, I do not like cooked carrots. Sorry. Don't tell the children. While I could have loaded up on other veggies, choices, among many being corn, peppers, sautéed mushrooms - are mushrooms a vegetable? - I used only veal stock (!!!), potatoes and wine that I bought per instructions, and garlic, onions and tomatoes, which I had on hand. 

And it was good. For quite a few meals worth of good.

After thawing the veal, I put it in a bag with some flour, pepper and salt and gave it a few good shakes.

Before that, a couple tablespoons of olive oil went into the pot to sauté some garlic, which I had smashed. Smashing garlic with the side of a knife is fun.

Removing the garlic, the now infused oil got a bit of butter added to it and in went the veal for browning. That had to be done in a couple of batches. p.s. I threw the garlic back in later. Of course I did.

Out came the veal, in went the  cubed tomatoes and onions and potatoes and about a cup of wine and a cup of veal stock. 

And back in went the veal. 

Now came the waiting, as it simmered, covered, for an hour or so. Maybe a little bit less. Along the way, I put in a little more veal stock, not much, and little more wine, not much. Hey, I had to have some wine with dinner, right? Drinking veal stock is not for me.

And then it was dinner. 

I could have thickened it more with more flour and skipped adding the extra stock. It didn't matter, it was delicious. Thanks, Alicia! I hope you are not cringing. 

For a recipe to go by, this recipe from Epicurious is what I used as a rough guideline along with Alicia's instructions. Stews, like potato salads, are hugely open to playing with according to your tastes, so as always, have fun! Play with your food. 

Buen provecho!!

Some other moments around this end of the island, looking out up and down.

And darned if night didn't come again. 

Have a feelingitthefinest Friday. Do something freaking fabulous.