Beef Osso Buco

Osso Buco

Funny how I would make Osso Buco more often before we started living in Italy. Personally I am not too fond of veal so I have always made it with beef (Charolais or Piemontese). And I do the version with (fresh) tomatoes and alcohol. Now that it's getting really cold and we've turned on the heaters, I'm interested in soups and stews once again. Time also to bring in the cactuses and lemon plant.

Beef Osso Buco :

2 pieces of Beef Osso Buco (aka hole in the bone)

Olive Oil (I try not to use butter anymore)

Flour (for dusting)

Garlic

Onion

Celery

Carrots

Tomatoes (fresh, tinned, paste...)

Lemon juice and peel (best untreated)

Parsley

Rosemary

Thyme

Bay Leaves

Red wine/Marsala/Dry Sherry/Brandy (if making veal use white wine)

Balsamic Vinegar (optional)

Meat broth

Remove the membrane surrounding the osso buco before cooking it if you do not want the meat to curl up. I didn't do it properly as I was late for my massage so part of it curled up this time.

Lightly flour, salt and pepper the meat and brown it on both sides in some olive oil. Remove and set aside.

Fry the onions, garlic till fragrant and then add in the chopped vegetables. Return the meat to the pot and season with the herbs. Pour in the alcohol (I did a mix of red wine, marsala and dry sherry) and simmer to let the alcohol evaporate. Then pour in some balsamic vinegar and lemon juice.

Fried potatoes with Porcini Mushrooms

Heat up the meat broth and add it to the meat. Cover, lower the heat and cook for at least 1.5 hours or till the beef is melt-in-the-mouth. Garnish with some julienned lemon peel and chopped parsley and serve with some mashed potatoes or polenta cakes. Osso Buco is very popular in Milan and over there they also like polenta (which I don't). I did some linguine this evening as the Babies wanted it and for Hub and myself we had fried potatoes with Porcini mushrooms.

Lancia Phedra

My new Lancia Phedra finally arrived. And it'll be my last as they are going to stop producing the car soon. It doesn't have a sun roof, xenon lights, leather seats or electric doors/seats like my old Phedra, but as we all know, times are bad and downgrading is the order of the day. This time I chose burgundy. With a brown interior. A bit like my osso buco.

Interior of the car

Actually, after driving the sunfish-looking Fiat Multipla and the stylish Fiat 500 in the last few weeks, I will find driving and especially parking the Phedra a chore - again. But somebody has to drive a 7-seater in the family and it looks like it'll have to be me.

This afternoon I met the Teenager's teachers. To brace myself for it I had a full-body massage before that. With a very inconsistent child, one can't expect much good news. I needed all my nerves soothed and pampered.