YADPT (Yet another dinner party thread)

[-E-]

E's Osso Buco
List of ingredients:
6-ea- veal shanks; if frozen, thawed in fridge, 1-2" in height
1-pk- celery
6-ea- carrots
1-ea- sweet onion
1-lb- mushrooms, sliced
1-lb- mushrooms, whole
3-ea- tomatoes
1-ea- leek
5-ea- garlic cloves, whole
1-pk- rosemary, fresh
1-pk- thyme, fresh
1-can- tomato paste
1-cup- flour
3-qt- veal stock
1-bot- red wine (cab works best)
Olive Oil
2-ea- large rectangular roasting pans, deep enough to situate all shanks and fluid
Aluminum foil to seal roasting pans
4-oz- fresh fine-shredded parmigiano reggiano

Prep:
Peel and quarter onion. Quarter tomatoes. Peel carrots, reserve 4 along with the whole mushrooms (caps only, discard stems) for roasting and garnish. Halve and halve the remaining two carrots, halve leek, halve celery stalks, about 4-6. Pound garlic (with a large knife is fine). Lightly dredge shanks in flour and dust off. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cook:
Heat olive oil on high heat, sear shanks - about 20-30 seconds a side. Remove from pan and let sit. Add more oil and while on medium-high heat, sautee onion for 2-3 minutes, stirring often. Add mushroom, carrot, continue frying for several minutes while the moisture evaporates. Add oil as needed to maintain the frying. Add garlic, let caramelize, but be careful not to burn. Add tomatoes, celery, and leek. Once everything has sweated properly, add tomato paste and let cook for a few minutes. Add fresh herbs, salt and pepper to taste, the bottle of wine, and the veal stock to the mix, bring to boil. Transfer entire mixture to your roasting pan (if you buy the throwaway aluminum ones they work well, just buy to so you can double-line them to withstand the weight), and place the shanks equally. The shanks should be submerged. Add additional wine and or stock until veal is covered in liquid. Seal the roasting pan(s) with aluminum foil so that no steam escapes and place into 350 degree oven for 1 hour, then lower to 300 degrees, and cook for at least 3 more hours (4 best).

Remove pan from oven, and delicately (and I do mean delicately) remove shanks from pan and place onto baking sheet, cover with aluminum, and place back into oven set to warm (150-170 degrees only). Strain the entire contents of the roasting pan into a large bowl, discard solids, de-grease the strained liquid, and strain again into a large sauce pot to reduce the sauce. Reduce sauce until consistency reaches the point where it will coat the back of the spoon without looking watery, to about 1/4 of the original volume.

Once the sauce starts to reduce, toss chopped carrot and whole mushroom caps in olive oil, salt and pepper, and roast in a 350-400 degree F oven - about 10-15 minutes, or until desired tenderness.

Re-strain reduction into a bowl to serve. Place whipped/mashed potatoes (fresh pasta also works) in center of dish, top with the veal shank. Drizzle reduction on and around the veal. "Sprinkle" the chopped carrots and mushrooms around the plate, top with some freshly shredded parm reg. Serve immediately.

[Doug Lax]

Thanks that sounds wonderful I will try it and report back