I went to visit my very good friend yesterday, Tanni lives about two hours drive away from here so it is always a bit of an effort to get together.
We got the tears out of the way first off and Tanni was as sad as I, when I told her that Amy thought that Mum hadn’t died. Even now the thought of Amy’s excited hope makes me cry.
Tanni had cooked me comfort food for lunch. Osso Buco with Milanese Risotto. When I got home late last night I found the very same recipe in Mum’s Italian cookbook.
So here is the slightly altered recipe. I use beef shins instead of veal. But really you could use any red meat that you liked, cheapo stewing steak would do nicely.
Osso Buco (ala Tanni and Kimmy)
4 veal shanks or knuckles approx 750g each (1 and 1/2 lbs) *
90g (3 oz) butter
2 carrots
3 sticks celery
2 large onions
2 cloves garlic **
flour,salt,pepper
2 tablespoons oil
2 cans of whole tomatoes
1/2 cup of red wine
500g (2 cups) of beef stock
1 tsp basil
1tsp thyme
1 bay leaf
2.5 cm (1 in.) strip of lemon rind***
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind (zest)
3 tablespoons chopped parsley****
Heat 30g (1,oz) of the butter in pan, Add peeled and chopped carrots, onions, celery and one crushed garlic clove. Cook gently until onions are golden brown. Remove from heat and transfer to a large oven-proof dish.
Coat the veal shanks (or whatever meat you are using) in flour seasoned with salt and pepper. Heat remaining butter and oil in large frying pan, add shanks, brown well on all sides. Place the shanks on top of the vegetables in the oven-proof dish.
Push tomatoes, with their juice through a sieve***** Drain away all the fat from the pan the veal was cooked in. Add the wine, beef stock, tomatoes, basil, thyme,bayleaf and strip of lemon rind. Bring sauce to the boil and season with salt and pepper.
Pour the sauce over the veal shanks. Cover the casserole and bake in a moderate oven for 1 and 1/2 hours or until the veal is very tender, stirring occassionally. Just before serving sprinkle the remaining crushed garlic, parsley and lemon zest over the Osso Buco. Serves 6.
The name means hollow bones and the traditional accompaniment is Risotto Milanese.
This is the traditional recipe for Osso Buco. I generally always adapt a recipe once I have cooked it. Years ago I used to live with a Hungarian girl and so I would add 3 or 4 heaped tablespoons of Sweet Hungarian paprika to the sauce as well as oomph up the ingredients a bit.
* Veal is almost impossible to find down here in Tassie and David won’t eat it anyway after he watched that episode of South Park. So I would use beef shin which has been cut into round sections. Failing that I would use whatever red meat I had in the freezer.
** I would easily use half a dozen cloves of garlic, (maybe more)
*** Tanni uses a whole lemon peel, cut into strips
**** I would use a good big handful of flat leaf parsley
***** Sieving takes too long and just makes more washing up. I would just mash the tomatoes up a bit with a fork.
Risotto Milanese
375g (12oz) long grain rice
60g (2 oz) butter
I large onion
1/2 cup dry white wine
3 cups hot water
2 chicken stock cubes
1/4 teaspoon saffron
30g (1oz) butter, extra
2 tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese
salt, pepper.
Heat the butter in pan, add peeled and chopped onion. cook until onion is tender, stirring gently.
Add rice to pan, stir until it is well coated with the butter.
Add wine and one cup of the hot water add saffron and the crumbled stock cubes. Stir well and bring to the boil. When the water has almost evaporated add another 1 cup of the hot water. Stir well again. Bring to the boil again. When this water has almost evaporated,stir in the remaining water. Reduce heat. Cook until the water has been absorbed.
Cooking time is about twenty minutes from the time the first cup of hot water is added. Cook the rice uncovered in this time.
Stir in the extra butter, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper, stir gently until the butter is melted.
These two just worked perfectly together.The richness of the sauce and the zing of the lemon combined with the creaminess of the risotto was just pure comfort food.
Thankyou Tan xox…
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Oh yummy! I think I would add a carton of passata instead of the sieving/mashing of tomatoes. I have been using my slow cooker a lot recently with either beef or mutton. Plenty of comfort food to keep the cold at bay 😉 Not being a fan of rice, I serve mine with potatoes, pasta or couscous. Being a kind person I do cook rice for DH sometimes. Made a beautiful soup/stew yesterday with a bacon hock and plenty of vegetables and red lentils. All served up with crusty cheesy bread. And there’s some left over for lunch today!
(((hugs)))
I often think of my mum when I cook her meals for the tribe here, brings back many memories .
Ooooh yummie, you made me hungry Kim!! I think I might try the recipe, even could makee it today ( or else I would probably forget, DUH!) . It ‘ll taste even better tomorrow then. Yup, this sounds like a good plan. In memory of your Mom Kim. Hugs.
Sounds really yummy. Don’t you find that comfort food is somehow more comforting when someone else cooks it for you? Kind of like an extra warm hug, in dumpling form.
comfort food, yay!
Oh my, that sounds fantastic. I can see it making it’s way into my recipe binder.
There, simmering away. MMMmmm.
The whole house smells absolutely delicious.
By the way Kim, you forgot to mention how many onions? I added some shalots according to my own taste, but somebody else might get confused on this?
Thanks Jientje, It is all fixed now it was two large onions ooops. I am so pleased that you have made this. It was very very Yummy.
Yum – absolutely perfect comfort food – risotto always is and when you add it to osso bucco – pure comfort heaven
Hope you’re starting to feel softening around the edges of your grief..
MM tried this recipe and it turned out great!
Thanks,
Lindsay
It was lovely Kim. Thank you.
Am in need of comfort food at the moment so will give this a try. Thanks 🙂
This post made me hungry. Whilst it is summer here in the UK it is raining a lot. This post inspired me to make good old home made soup today, no particular region but leeks potatoes lentils chorizio celery plus more were a welome change. Had it not been for your inspirational post we would have had salad on a wet summer’s day. So thank you.
Funny, I have had osso buco on my mind, and now you have sent me a recipe. Thanks for that, and for the visit to my site – teh picture of Amy catching imaginary fish made me laugh. She sounds ilke a gal after Ivy’s heart.
So sorry that you have recently lost your Mum. Electronic hugs on their way. xx