Braised Osso Bucco with Roasted Vegetables in Lemon-Parsley Butter

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, one of my new years resolutions was to have more guests over. Since I was cooking a recipe from the Family Meals section of the cookbook, I could think of no better guests to have over.

My parents.

My parents, are meat and potatoes people, always have been, always will be, so this was the perfect dish for them. Ironically, the last time we had them over, we pretty much had the same meal (only I served with risotto and a gremolata)

Believe it or not, not everyone carries veal shanks. It took us a 40 minute drive and TWO stores (Whole Foods AND Wegmans) to get 4 shanks. At a premium too!   I'll tell ya what, if this is family meal at Nicholas, where do I sign up to wash dishes?

 

This recipe consists of a few different components:

A fairly ordinary braise of the veal, roasted carrots and potatoes, and lemon-parsley butter (for the carrots and potatoes)

We started off tying and searing the veal. Which means, 'take the batteries out of the smoke detectors, and open the doors due to having NO exhaust fan'

Becuase I know you guys like my videos so much, I figured I'd give you a tour of a day in the life of the Timko kitchen. Our rather sad little house/kitchen.

After browning, I had to prep some mirepoix, and sweat it, add some tomatos and brown...

I bet you are wondering why I'm wearing a chef coat in my own kitchen huh? For that, I'll let Laurie explain.

Here's Rob's new get-up.  Why?  Because he wants to be a Chef.  No, just kidding.  It's because I'm tired of trying to stain fight every shirt he ruins while cooking so I told him to wear his Halloween costume (pictured below).  It's impossible for him to cook without splattering, splashing, squirting SOMETHING on his shirts.  So...enjoy the new look.  P.s. I find it kinda sexy anyhow. ;)

Back to the cooking...

 

 

 For some reason, it always feels good to use homemade chicken stock.

A few hours later, we pulled the veal from the oven.

And let it rest...while we served up some snacks.

We also started cooking the vegetables. I don't have any pictures of the lemon-parlsey butter, but I'm guessing you can figure out what's in it!

I added to the recipe for the vegetables. I was recently at a friends house for beef stew, and saw him cook his potatoes this way, in a cast iron pan, and it was so simple and ingenious, I wondered why I've never done it that way.

I used some uncured peppered bacon  and lined the pan, before adding the carrots and potatoes.

Then tossed them in the oven. 

 They came out looking like this. What a great way to cook root veggies. We then tossed with the lemon-parsley butter.

The wine pairing suggested was a Brunello di Montalcino. Yay. For once, we were very familiar with this wine as we spent all of September eating and drinking our way through Italy. Montalcino was one of our favorite places, and Brunello, our favorite wine. (we brought back a few good bottles to open on our anniversary)

Here are some pictures I took from September...

 Montalcino is a very small 'walled' town (although, it's a rather large area surrounding it, where the wine is grown)

 We didn't tour any specific vineyards there, and opted to just taste every single one at once...

From 1euro pours, to 25euro pours...

I loved it there....

Laurie loves Gelato....everywhere.

But I digress...

This is the bottle we picked up at the local wine store. Nothing special, but they didn't necessarily have a large selection.

We served it up with a little spoon for the marrow...Again, I apologies for not plating and taking pictures like a pro, it's tough when you have hungry guests waiting and looking at you like you are crazy taking pictures....of food.

Thoughts: A great, simple family meal. The reduced town sauce was fantastic. I think I over-reduced (got too caught up talking with the family) and made a much thicker sauce than I was supposed to, but nonetheless it was awesome. The recipe was nothing out of the ordinary, or unique even. You can find the same recipe in a few different cookbooks, but, that just means that it's a great meal, and perfect for the 'family meals' section of the book. Like I said before, if this is family meal at Nicholas, where do I sign up to wash dishes?   The only issue I had with this dish is the shank falling apart a little bit when plating, probably because I braised a little too long or didn't let them rest long enough. My guests didn't mind. We were so caught up in conversation, I didn't bother to keep checking them as they were braising...I'll take good conversation over 'perfect' done osso bucco, anyday.

The wine pairing was good, but, the bottle of wine picked out, was just ok. It's no 2004 Casanova di Neri Brunello di Montalcino Cerretalto, that we have squirriled away....

Up Next: I think I'm going to try the roasted chicken or the wine poached filet...