24 Hour Osso Buco | Recipeish | Gustus Vitae
- Yield: 2 generous plates
- Time Estimate: 25 hours, including 24 unattended.
- Storage Notes: Best if enjoyed immediately, will keep for a couple days in the fridge.
- Difficulty: Easy.
Osso Buco is one of those rare treats that you stumble upon very rarely, yet always at just the perfect time: something you see on the specials list at a small Italian restaurant on a cold winter's night, that fills and warms you completely like only osso buco can do.
We decided to make our own luck and try our hand at home, and man, we are so glad we did. It's pretty straightforward to prep, and all the ingredients are accessible and super cheap - this is the ultimate paisano meal: an inexpensive cut of meat rendered deliciously decadent, cheap rough-hewn corn turned pillowy and decadent. Keep this meal for a cold winter weekend - we promise it's worth every minute.
Ingredients
- 2 large veal or pork shanks. You'll probably have to ask your butcher for these - these are cheap cuts that not a lot of people buy, but you'll make your butcher's day by asking for them.
- 1 lb mushrooms
- 3-4 large bell peppers, or 10 small ones
- 1 1/2 large white onions
- 5-6 large carrots
- 5 cloves garlic
- 1 1/2 cup red wine
- 1 full tin Italian Black Winter Truffle Sea Salt
- 1 tbs California Sea Salt
- 1 cup polenta
- 1 stick butter
- 4 tbs extra virgin olive oil
- some plain flour for dusting
- Some basil and thyme to garnish, and a bit of extra virgin olive oil to finish
- Pat dry shanks. Coat completely with Truffle Salt - it will seem like to much, but trust us, it's not.
- Bring up a cast iron pan to high, and add in 1/2 of the butter. Sprinkle and pat flour on shanks, and add to pan. Cook each of the main sides around 1:00, just for a bit of color, and roll along the sides to sear. Reserve.
- Peel carrots and onion, rinse and deseed bell peppers, rinse and pat dry mushrooms.
- Dice these all into small bits - around 1cm each. Rough chop garlic, and combine all in a large bowl.
- Working in batches, cook vegetable/fungi mixture, reducing and browning. All together, this should take around 15 minutes.
- Prep a sous vide bath to 175F.
- Wait for shanks and veggie mixture to cool slightly (around 5 minutes is fine), and bag and vacuum seal in separate bags.
- This is going to take 24 hours, so make this the night before you want to enjoy. Due to the combination of higher temp and time, unless you have a cap for your sous vide you'll loose a lot of the water - if you don't have a cap, just make a note to refill it ever 8 hours or so.
- That night, in a large pot, combine 1 cup polenta with 5 cups distilled water, cover, and reserve. You don't have to soak your polenta overnight, but it does cut down your cook time to about half - around 30 minutes.
- Great! It's 24 hours later!
- Heat up the polenta to medium high while stirring regularly to avoid it sticking and burning on the bottom. At about the 25 minute mark, it should start holding well together. Drop in the half-stick of butter, and combine.
- Evenly ladle out polenta. Pop open each bag, and, it couldn't be simpler, simply pour all of that goodness on top of each plate.
- Garnish with a bit of basil, some thyme, and a little drizzle of good olive oil.
- Yummmmmmmm