🍖🇮🇹 Osso Buco Stew: A Complete Guide🍷🥕

Hello fellow cooking enthusiasts~ Today, I'd like to introduce you to a classic Milanese dish from Northern Italy : Osso Buco (braised veal shank) ! 🎉

"Osso Buco" literally translates to "hole-filled bone" in Italian. It's actually a stewed beef shank bone with the meat, featuring a hearty grain of bone marrow in the center. The beef shank, braised until tender, is paired with a rich red wine and tomato sauce for a truly delicious and flavorful dish.

Traditionally, Osso Buco is served with risotto alla Milanese (Italian rice cooked with saffron) or mashed potatoes , which is the most authentic combination.

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🛒 Ingredients (Serves 4)

• About 4 pieces of veal shanks (about 350-400g each)🍖
• 3 tablespoons olive oil🫒
• 30g butter 🧈
• 1 onion (chopped)
• 2 carrots (diced)🥕
• 2 celery stalks (diced)
• 3 cloves of garlic (chopped)🧄
• 400g canned chopped tomatoes 🍅
• 2 tablespoons of tomato sauce🍅
• 200ml Dry White Wine
• 500ml beef broth 🍲
• 2 bay leaves🌿
• 2–3 sprigs of thyme
• Salt to taste
• Black pepper 🌑 to taste
• Appropriate amount of all-purpose flour (to seal the gravy)🌾

Gremolata (traditional garnish sauce) 🌿✨

• 1 teaspoon lemon zest 🍋
• 1 clove minced garlic🧄
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley🌱

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👩🍳 Detailed cooking process

1. Processing Achyranthes bidentata

• Pat the ox knee dry with kitchen paper and season with salt and black pepper.
• Lightly sprinkle with flour to help lock in the meat juices and make it easier to fry later.

2. Pan-fry the Achyranthes

• Heat olive oil and butter in a frying pan over medium-high heat.
• Add the beef shank piece by piece and fry until both sides are golden brown🔥.
• After frying, remove from heat and set aside.

3. Stir-fry the vegetables

• In the same wok, add onion, carrot, and celery and sauté until softened and slightly caramelized.
• Add minced garlic and sauté until fragrant.

4. Add wine to deglaze

• Pour in the white wine 🍷, use a wooden spoon to scrape up the burnt aroma on the bottom of the wok, and cook for 2-3 minutes more to evaporate the alcohol.

5. Add tomatoes and herbs

• Add chopped tomatoes and tomato paste and mix well.
• Pour in beef stock, bay leaves and thyme.

6. Stewed Oxenia

• Return the seared beef shank to the pan, making sure the liquid covers at least half of the meat.
• Cover and simmer over low heat for 1.5–2 hours, until the beef is tender and the bone marrow is partially dissolved.
• You can turn it over once during the cooking process to prevent it from sticking to the bottom.

7. Make Gremolata Garnish

• Combine lemon zest, minced garlic, and chopped parsley.
• Sprinkle it on the beef knee noodles before serving to enhance the freshness and layering 🌿🍋.

8. Finish serving

• When serving, you can pour the sauce over the beef knee.
• Paired with risotto, mashed potatoes or crispy bread🥖, perfect!

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💡 Editor's Tips & Variations

• Meat selection : Traditionally, veal knee is used. If you can’t find it, you can use beef knee or beef tendon instead, the effect is good.
• Sauce consistency : If you want a thicker sauce, you can open the lid at the end to collect the sauce; if you want a lighter sauce, you can add some broth.
• Deluxe version : Some people add a few saffron threads to the sauce to make the finished product more fragrant.
• Hong Kong Fusion : I’ve tried replacing the Milanese risotto with white rice 🍚 or pasta 🍝, and it still absorbs the juice so well you can’t stop eating it!
• How to eat bone marrow : The bone marrow in the middle is the essence. You can scoop it out with a small spoon or eat it with bread. It is super delicious.

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🎉 Summary

Osso Buco can be described as the art of slow cooking . 🥘
The beef shank is stewed for a long time until it is tender and well-seasoned. The tomato and red wine sauce is sweet and sour, and has the creamy aroma of bone marrow. It really makes you feel happy after just one bite ❤️.

I think this dish is perfect for slow cooking on weekends. The house is filled with aroma, and paired with a glass of red wine 🍷, it's like flying to a Milanese restaurant in an instant~