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Osso Bucco - the lazy way in a slow cooker |
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Effigy 
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Joined: 17 June 2013 Location: New Zealand Status: Offline Points: 633 |
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 Topic: Osso Bucco - the lazy way in a slow cookerPosted: 11 August 2013 at 20:17 |
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When I first heard of this dish it was a restaurant delicacy, not for the likes of this country mouse.
Well how wrong can you be? Once I learned that beef shin is perfectly acceptable I started getting my butcher to do our animals so as to include the shin meat band-sawn as osso bucco. The following recipe is one I do when I have to be out working all day and everyone needs a hearty meal when they get in. Also the ingredients all come from my garden, nothing fancy, the only thing I have to buy is the wine - shame!  I have experimented with browning and not browning, in all honesty after 8-10 hours cooking you can't tell the difference, so for speed and ease I don't brown. Ingredients for a 4 liter slow-cooker.. 8 slices of beef shin 1 large carrot sliced 10mm thick 1 large onion, cut into big pieces 1 large stick of celery chopped 1 400g can of chopped tomatoes, (I have tomatoes frozen from last summer) 4 large cloves of garlic peeled and halved, crushed 2 bay leaves salt and pepper 6" sprig of rosemary 1/2 c white wine Combine the tomatoes, seasoning and wine. Layer the meat and vegetables and bay leaves into the slow cooker, pour the tomato mix over. Place the rosemary on the top. cover with a sheet of baking parchment pressed down over the surface to prevent the top from drying out. Put the lid on and set to cook all day - go to work. Adjust the seasoning before serving and thicken with a little beurre manié. I serve it with ribbon noodles or mashed potatoes and fresh garden salad. The 20 minutes that takes to prepare is enough time to cook out the flour of the thickening. Too easy! |
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Margi Cintrano
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Joined: 03 February 2012 Location: Spain Status: Offline Points: 6362 |
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Posted: 11 August 2013 at 22:48 |
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Anne. Slow cookers in Mediterranean are an oddity ! Sounds delicious . My paternal Grandmom taught me to prepare and it is a favorite November through winter dish. I have never used a slow cooker ! However it is surely a covenience if cooking for a family. We are just two and and so it is not too laborous. Its a Sunday dish. I serve with Risotto Milanese always like my Grandmom. Recipe in Italy.
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Volamos a Mediterraneo, un paraiso que conquista su gente u su cocina.
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Effigy
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Joined: 17 June 2013 Location: New Zealand Status: Offline Points: 633 |
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Posted: 12 August 2013 at 01:49 |
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I love 'slow food' - that's me - let me try to explain.
My favorite holiday is camping with my history loving friends. We dig and build a fire pit, arrange the earth around the fire to resemble a 'hob' and spend silly amounts of time sitting around said fire while our food cooks in ceramic pots in the radiant heat - ergo 'slow cooker'. I have prided myself in becoming the queen of cooking on an open fire outdoors. These days I park my chair and issue orders, no more wood chopping for Eff. As such, I am always looking for traditional European meals that [plausibly] 'could' have been prepared this way in centuries past. I love that I get to sit somewhere warm and work on my hand crafts out doors and know I can feed the veritable army of enthusiastic young students who come to play at my hearth. I re-enact a Norman small holder in the north of England c1170. OK now you all know I am nuts.
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Margi Cintrano
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Joined: 03 February 2012 Location: Spain Status: Offline Points: 6362 |
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Posted: 12 August 2013 at 05:40 |
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Anne,
I am a native Manhattaner, born and raised in Greenwich Village admist the cement, the impacting views of the skyscrapers and the two bodies of water that surround island, Little Italy and Chinatown. I do not think you are " off beat " ... I know numerous Chefs, who do same; one is Chef José Andrés who prepares his renowned PAELLA on an open fire, in his home in Maryland. There is a wonderful and amazing Venezuelan Chef & Investigator, German Delgado Gallego who lives and resides in Mexico´s Sierra de Monterrei, and prepares his lamb in an ancient pre-aztec oven, and there is our FOTW MEMBER, WONDERFUL, AHRON GROPPER in South Africa ... I respect all culinary philosophies, however, I am French and Italian, living in Spain, though I also lived in Greece, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Mexico and Provençe ... HAVE FUN. margaux.
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Volamos a Mediterraneo, un paraiso que conquista su gente u su cocina.
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TasunkaWitko
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Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9389 |
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Posted: 12 August 2013 at 09:26 |
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Sounds really nice and easy, Anne - Osso Bucco is another one of those that I have a huge hankering to try.
I like your description of a favourite holiday," sounds like a great time to me! This passage right here resonated with me, especially:
Nearly every time, this plausibility is also what I strive for, especially with ingredients, method and preparation. Yeah, I use an electric oven, and maybe a small appliance or two, but my goal is almost always for my results to be - at the very least - very familiar to someone from centuries ago....
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Margi Cintrano
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Joined: 03 February 2012 Location: Spain Status: Offline Points: 6362 |
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Posted: 12 August 2013 at 10:06 |
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Tas,
Just wanted to mention, your love for Maria´s Cuban Perñil Pork Roast. Maria never made her´s in a conventional kitchen oven ! She prepared her´s in her back yard in the ground on flame ... This is a true Cuban Perñil ... Of course, when she moved over to Miami Beach, she had to use a conventional oven !!! That is why she gave me the récipe for Oven !!! This is an ancient dish, probably hailing from the time of Cristóbal Colón in 1492 ... Margaux. |
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Volamos a Mediterraneo, un paraiso que conquista su gente u su cocina.
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HistoricFoodie
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Joined: 21 February 2012 Location: Kentucky Status: Offline Points: 4945 |
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Posted: 12 August 2013 at 19:23 |
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If you make this the traditional way, Ron, with veal, it will take a second mortgage.
However, come the fall, keep in mind that osso bucco works just as well with venison. Just cut the forelegs into 2" slices, using a bandsaw or hand meat saw as the case may be. You do want to plan this as a more or less immediate meal after harvesting a deer, though. There is a lot of fat and connective tissue in those front legs, and, even in the freezer it can, as you know, turn rancid. |
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Hoser
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Joined: 06 February 2010 Location: Cumberland, RI Status: Offline Points: 3454 |
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Posted: 13 August 2013 at 02:52 |
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I guess I'm lucky....we get veal shanks on sale quite often here in New England...I suppose due to the large Italian influence in the Providence area. They go on sale on a regular basis at my local market, but a bit more the closer we are to the holidays.
I do always brown my veal shanks quite well, but can't poo-poo the idea of not browning them and slow cooking, because I have not tried it. It's the marrow that makes this dish anyway, in my humble opinion. That's it then...osso buco moves to the top of my short list,,,in the slow cooker.
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Go ahead...play with your food!
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Effigy
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Joined: 17 June 2013 Location: New Zealand Status: Offline Points: 633 |
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Posted: 13 August 2013 at 03:53 |
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Totally the marrow!
When the marrow has completely 'melted' ie - falls out of the bones it's done. The not browning is my personal experiment. My Grandmother never browned anything, her kitchen was clean and fragrant - one of those places you remember most by smell, 'Sunlight' soap takes me straight there (I digress).... And she boiled (simmered) nearly everything, she was shifted from her own home to live with us in her own flat in the early 1960's, and she had used a coal range all her life - what a wrench it must have been for her converting to electricity! I recall her bemoaning the fact that the new electric oven dried everything out. My point is, the caramelisation created by browning happens in a different way over a long slow period (think Morroccan tagines). I also have a twelfth century recipe for boiled beef which flies in the face of everything I know about cooking meat, but is delicious. I will find it and post next time I go time travelling to a living history camp.
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HistoricFoodie
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Posted: 13 August 2013 at 11:43 |
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Searing and browning to take advantage of the flavor improvements of the Maliard effect is a relatively modern thing, Anne, dating from the late 19th century.
As late as the 18th and early 19th centuries, when many dishes were boiled (perhaps the preponderance of them) they were not browned first. Much of the time the only real benefit to browning is to produce the fond for making sauces and gravies. So not bothering with it when doing a braise should be no big deal. |
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As such, I am always looking for traditional European meals that [plausibly] 'could' have been prepared this way in centuries past.