Original : 24th Nov 2012
I love Osso Buco, it taste so nice and is a great dish for autumn. A great comfort food dish. The house smells beautiful and gets everybody in a good mood.
Ingredients :
Garlic – Carrots – Celeri – Onions – Shallots
Pepper – Salt – Nutmeg – Flour – Butter
Chicken Stock – Osso Buco Veal pieces
Couscous or Pasta to go with it
It is very easy to prepare. Buy some nice pieces of veal, make sure there is no “loose” pieces of bones and dip in flour on both sides.
Seal the meat in your “Creuset” with a nice piece of butter. [update : I also add a bit of olive oil to make the butter foam-up a bit] Do not hesitate to put butter, it is a comfort dish, not some sprouting beans…Watch the temperature of the butter so that it does not burn too much. you just want to seal the meat, not cook it. Put some pepper to taste. I like it when it has a little bit of a kick. Do not put too much salt at this point, because you will put the chicken stock later which is salty on its own.
Once the meat is browned, put on the side and stir the onions. Again, do not burn the onions, you simply want to melt them and “clean” the dish to get all the nice flavours in the juice rather than sticking to the pan.
When the onions have started to get transparent, throw-in the other vegetables, carrots, celery shallots, garlic. Stir constantly until the dish is nice and clean at the bottom. (see the pictures). At this point, I like to add a little bit of nutmeg. This is the “secret” in my recipe of Osso Buco.
Prepare a chicken stock. (500ml approx)
Put the veal back in the Creuset pot, putting the meat on the bottom and the vegetables all around and over. Then cover with the chicken stock. I usually cover up to the top of the meat. You can put more or less depending on how juicy you want the final product. I prefer juicy and the kids like it that way as well.
Put the Creuset dish in the oven with the cover, at 160 degrees Celsius. For at least 90 minutes, or until the veal comes off the bones. This is almost a slow cooking dish. So do not hesitate to leave longer. The meat will not get dry, because of the juices from the vegetables and the chicken stock. If the stock evaporates too much, simply add a bit of water. But usually this is not necessary.
When ready to serve, I like to serve it with Couscous or Tagliatelle pasta.
Enjoy…
[update : It is ok to cook this in advance of people coming to the house and re-heat on time. It is also great on day 2 after a day in the fridge]
