Osso Bucco

I saw a thread here the other night on someone's Osso Bucco. It looked delicious, but I'd never seen it served as a steak type cut before; I've always made a pasta sauce of it.

It got.me wanting some, so I made it for dinner tonight. I thought I'd post some pics of the process.

Posting from my phone so pardon typos/bad pics etc.

Up first, searing a beef shank and some extra bones for tasty marrow in a bit of oil oil and a pad of butter in my cast iron dutch oven. Seasoned with garlic, salt, pepper, oregano, rosemary, thyme and a pinch of basil.

After a few minutes of developing a bit of char on the bottom.

Removed from heat to rest a moment while I get the veggies ready.

Already smells great, but too rare for my tastes.

One more shot of the shanks resting.

I resisted a bite by opening the bottle of pinot instead.

Veg time. One whole onion, four stalks of celery, a handful of little snack carrots chopped up. Go ahead and laugh at my plastic dishes; I have 3 kids under 5 years old - real serving ware doesn't stand a chance.

Stock and wine to complete the ensemble. I didn't get the remainder of the seasoning in the shot - another blend like what went on the shanks got tossed in with the veggies once they went in the dutch oven.

Into the dutch oven to deglaze and soften.

After about 7 or so minutes, once the onions begin to caramelize. Time to assemble the sauce.

A good dose of wine, and some for the sauce. I used some cheap pinot grigio, but just about any less sweet wine will do.

I think next time, I'll try it with a red, probably chianti since I usually have a bottle around for bolognese.

Meat goes in, then enough beef stock to cover.

I've made this recipie before with pork shoulder instead of beef shanks, and chicken stock instead of beef. It was absolutely delicious.

Into the oven it goes for 2-4 hours. I let mine go for 4 tonight.

Four hours was a long time to wait for dinner so I did some other stuff.

Can't have osso bucco without gremalata. Parsley, garlic and lemon zest. Easy mode stuff, but it livens up the dish tremendously.

Chop chop chop, toss together.

But now I can smell my sauce cooking, so it was time for an appetizer.

Day old Jommy Johns bread to the rescue.

Slice, baste with olive oil. Time to make crostini.

Into a hot cast iron it goes.

I really don't get why people debate having cast iron or call it a meme. Its just another tool for the kitchen, either you have a use for it or you don't.

I like mine. I use them a lot.

Got a good crispiness going, time to serve up some bruschetta topping I made earlier.

Hot bread.

I made some bruschetta topping earlier I didn't take pictures of; its stupidly easy though. One diced roma tomato, a spoonful of garlic, a handful of chopped basil from the garden, and a splash of olive oil. I toss mine together with a heap of grated parmesan and let it marinate in the fridge for a bit.

For the actual appetizer, I like some proscuitto and sliced mozzarella alongside.

So simple, yet the picture it produces is some fancy instagram-tier food porn.

Tastes good though, unlike half of the fancy picture foods out there.

Tumblr-tier money shot

The sauce is out of the oven, I can almost see the little wavy cartoon "this is delicious" line, even if it doesnt quite look it yet.

As usual, it desintegrated when I pulled the shank out of the sauce.

Knocked the marrow out of the bones and stirred it in, seperated the big bits of gristle out.

Fork shredded and ready to return to the sauce.

Time to plate up!

The finished product. I thought I had some raditori, but apparently I ran out, so I went with some.less than ideal fettuccini, but it'll do. Topped with the gremalata and some grated parmesan.

It was pretty good. 8/10, needed better pasta shape.

Hope you all enjoyed the posts; its my first attempt at not-lurking.

Pretty good OP, thanks for sharing.
I've made a couple, but I usually serve it as a stew on some mashed potatoes or rice instead of on pasta. Unfortunately I don't have my recipe any more, although I did upload it to Veeky Forums a few times. A good stock really does make the difference with it. Sometimes I put in extra wine, let it get hot and then crumble in a stock cube. My flatmates were begging me to make it again after they tried it once.
Do your kids eat this sort of thing? I worry about having kids that are too fussy

I've never tried it on potatoes or rice, might try that with left overs.

My kids have had it before and liked it. I' ve been fortunate to have adventurous eaters, and I've tried hard to nuture that in them.

My wife taunts her friends on FB with pictures of our kids eating salads or pho or whatever other not tendies-n-mac meal were having.

Looking good OP. Similar to how I make mine:)