Joe can cook! Season 1 Finale:Osso Bucco

It's been a long while since I posted a recipe and I had problems filtering through my archives to find which episode I am up to. So to my knowledge, this should be episode 22 or for simplicity sake, this will be the curtain drawing season 1 finale before I decide if there's enough viewers to warrant a second season (just like the good old TV shows).


Now I have never attempted nor thought about cooking osso bucco (veal shank) until I watched "My Kitchen Rules" (one of the filler food series to watch before MasterChef Season 3 started) where the semi-finalists decided to wow with this classic italian recipe. From what we saw on the show, it looked simple enough and with a google for a sample recipe, we went off to make this dish.

Recipe (from my memory)

1kg of osso bucco (we bought some from James St Market, lovely quality but you pay premium price)

3 tomatoes or/and a can of tinned tomatoes

1-2 onions (finely diced)

1 carrot (finely diced)

1 stalk of celery (finely diced)

3-4 cloves of garlic (finely diced)

1 cup of white wine

1 cup of stock

Flour to coat osso bucco

1. Heat a pan with 2 tbs of oil. Coat the osso bucco with flour and brown them on both sides on high heat. Keep aside the meat and don't wash the pan (keep for step 3).

2. Heat a pot (oven proof, if you have one) with some oil and sweat all the vegetables till soft (except the tomatoes).

! 3. Back to pan 1; pour the cup of wine and scrap off all the yummy brown bits and bring to boil (to burn off the alcohol) then pour in stock and tomatoes and bring to boil again.

4. Pour in contents of pan 1 to pot with the softened vegetables and put in osso bucco as well. Bring it to boil 1 more time.

5. If your pot is ovenproof, put it in an oven at 160 degrees for 2 hour, if not transfer everything into a casserole dish before going into the oven. Alternatively, an online recipe say to cook it on the stove for 2 hours under very low heat. You will know its all done when the meat is falling off the bone.

6. If you prefer a thick glossy sauce, thicken with roux (simply whisk some butter and flour in a pan till it becomes powdery).

7. Serve with mash potatoes. A simple recipe is just boiling peeled potatoes, mash it with a good chunk of butter (I say 125 grams for every 1kg of potatoes) and some milk. Season with salt and pepper.

There you have it, a slow cooked meal for the colder winter days of Brisbane. Enjoy!