Braised Beef Shank aka Osso Bucco
A recipe! A winter recipe! A stew!
Surprised? Me too, a little! What has inspired this triumphant return to food blogging, you ask? Nothing exciting.
Just that our take out expenditure has escalated in the past few months, to the point of daily takeout orders unless we’re already eating leftover takeout. Over the course of a few weeks I threw out pretty much an entire Costco order, item by item as it rotted in my fridge, in favor of scrolling through menus on Grubhub. It’s gotten a little out of hand.
So we are quitting cold turkey!
From Jan 16 to Feb 13, we are trying to implement a $500 spending cap for all expenditures - food, entertainment, essentials. It was never gonna be possible in this economy but it’s been fun trying to see how long we can last. It’s also making us take a cold hard look every potential purchase before buying, especially when it comes to food, and forcing us to be creative with what we have.
What I’m quickly remembering is that budgeting food requires way too much mental fortitude for advanced planning. Unlike pandemic quarantine era when every ingredient sparkled multiple jumping points of inspiration, now when I stare at my fully stocked pantry and freezer I draw a complete blank.
So back to the basics we go. Some pasta and tomato sauce… a nice winter stew. While it hasn’t been butt-freezing cold this winter season yet, Philly has given us a fair share of wet and gloom this January, more than enough warrant a new January stew using the beef shanks I impulse purchased at the local butcher a few weeks ag.
Nothing too complicated. Just simple, comforting and delicious.
Braised Beef Shanks a la Osso Bucco
Preheat oven to 325F.
In a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat, brown in neutral oil:
4 lbs. beef shanks, seasoned generously with salt on both sides
Brown both sides for maximum flavor
While meat is searing, cut into large chunks:
1 onion
1 carrot
3 sticks of celery
After the meat is browned, remove from the pot and add chunked vegetables.
Turn the heat down to medium, and sweat the vegetables. Scrape the pot to deglaze the pot using the moisture from the veggies. Don’t let the good fond from the meat burn!
Once veggies are softened, add:
3 tomatoes (canned is ok) OR 1 tomato + 2 Tbsp tomato paste
1.5 Tbsp flour
Cook until the flour is toasted and the tomatoes are cooked down, then deglaze with:
1 cup wine (white or red is fine, or just stock!)
Then add:
the seared shanks
6 cups beef stock, or enough to over the braise about 2/3 of the way
Add your aromatics:
10 sprigs parsley
10 black peppercorns
2 bayleaves
2 garlic cloves, smashed
Sprinkle red pepper flakes
Cover tightly, the turn heat to high and bring to a boil.
Transfer to oven and braise for 2.5 - 3 hrs, or until meat falls off the bone.
Check the braise halfway to make sure the liquid isn’t too evaporated. Add more if needed!
Finishing the Stew
Once cooked, remove from the oven and let sit as is until it’s cool enough to handle.
Don’t remove the meat from the braise!
Skim off any excess fat.
Remove the bones, tear the meat into big chunks . Scrape out all that good marrow from the inside of the bone if you’re using shanks!
Bring the stew back up to a simmer. Reduce the liquid to the desired consistency.
Serve with your starch of choice, topped with some parsley & a squeeze of lemon. Eat it as a chunky stew, or finish it with pasta.
Notes
I cross-referenced some basic recipes from the internet, and a couple of similar beef braise type recipes from my two go-to Italian cookbooks, Urban Italian & Rustic Italian Food. It’s all generally the same idea. Don’t get too hung up on the ingredient list and amounts.
Wine was not in our $500 budget (I spent $1.5 on parsley and had everything else on hand) so I just used stock to deglaze. Beef is so hearty I wasn’t really missing that richness. To be fair, I did use a really rich gelatinous pork & chicken stock I made a long time ago for saltena purposes, so my stew came out so extra sticky and rich. Almost felt like a waste but better than taking up space in my freezer.
Cool the meat in the braising liquid! Meat cooled out of its braising liquid will be dry. Rookie mistake that wastes hours of good braising. It’s easy enough to just take it out of the oven and let it hang out in the kitchen until it’s time to eat. But if you need to store it, make sure you store the meat with the liquid poured on top of it.