At work we have an agriculture department, complete with a couple of sheep, some chickens, plenty of space for some crops, and a few steers. The steers are always entered into a competition to see which school can raise the best steer in the “hoof and hook” competition. Agriculture is about producing food and resources for humans, not a petting zoos, and this is one of the realities of farm life.
Recently one of our school steers was slaughtered for the competition, with the resulting meat being of such a high quality that you would be hard pressed to find it in a butcher (most restaurants get this quality first). One of my colleagues and I went halves in a box of meat. The meat quality is beautiful, but I am finding myself cooking meals with cuts of meat I have rarely use (we are lamb eaters – we farm sheep after all).
Osso Bucco is one of those cuts which I know I should have used, but just haven’t.
After reading around the internet for some inspiration, here is what I have done with it:
Ingredients
2 pieces of osso bucco beef (approx 600g)
1T olive oil
1 onion – finely diced
1 celery stick – diced
1 carrot – diced
2 garlic cloves finely sliced
1c white wine
400g tin chopped tomatoes
1T tomato paste
1 bay leaf
1 small bunch of thyme (our thyme is looking a bit sad at the moment so we don’t have much)
Method
- Heat oil in an oven proof pan and seal meat well.
- Remove from pan and set to one side
- Add onion, celery and carrot and cook for 2 minutes until softened and slightly caramelised
- Add garlic and cook 1 minute more
- Add white wine, chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, bay leaf and thyme
- Return meat to pan and immerse in sauce
- Cover well and place in oven for approx 2 hours or until the meat is falling from the bones. Check seasoning and adjust.
- Serve with mash, or polenta
Yum!
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