In Italian, ‘Osso’ translates to ‘bone’ and ‘buco’ translates to ‘hole’. Therefore this dish translates to ‘bone with the hole’, or ‘Osso Buco’. Simple!
The cooked marrow inside the bone is my favourite little piece to eat.
There are many recipes for this excellent Italian dish. This is mine:
Ingredients
4 pcs Osso Buco beef (from the meat case at Maxi)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion
plain flour
2 carrots
3 lengths of fresh celery
2 cloves fresh garlic
a handful of fresh Continental parsley
a can of diced tomatoes
Massel chicken stock powder
2 cups hot water
Murray River Pink salt
Black cracked pepper or freshly ground pepper
Method
Preheat the oven to 200c.
In an oven ready pot (with a lid), on the stove top, gently fry (uncovered) in olive oil your onion sliced into rings. Flip them when they start to brown. A whilst they’re cooking, coat your Osso Buco meat with plain flour. Place the Osso Buco meat into the pot and let them brown. Flip them to brown the other side when they look ready. We are not ‘cooking the meat’, we are ‘browning’ the meat…
Whilst they’re browning, dice your carrots and celery. Chop your parsley and garlic.
Mix a teaspoon of Massel powdered chicken stock in 2 cups of hot water. Pour a little of this stock into the pot to maintain moisture.
Once the other side of the meat is browned, tip in your vegetables. Add a can of diced tomatoes and add the rest of your stock. Add Murray River Pink salt and cracked or ground pepper to taste.
Ensure the liquid comes up, but not so high as to cover the contents. Put the lid on and place in the preheated oven for 1 hour 30 mins. At the 1 hour mark, check to ensure your liquid has not evaporated. If it has, you will need to add more Massel stock mixture to ensure the dish remains cooking in liquid. A tight pot lid will allow a little evaporation, but check it regardless otherwise it will appear a little dark in colour and earn the name ‘burnt’!
This can be served as is, on a bed of rice or mashed potato.
I like to eat it ‘as is’ so then I can have another one!
Enjoy.
