Mattot Recipe – Osso Buco (Braised Veal Shanks)

Helen Nash

• Makes 12 servings

Shanks of veal lend themselves to braising. This is a lovely dish, with a thick and aromatic sauce. It is best made a day or two in advance to allow the flavors to blend fully.

12 veal shanks, each 1 1/2 inches/4 cm thick

(Ask the butcher to tie the shanks around the middle.)

2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

5 celery stalks, peeled and cut into large pieces

2 large onions, quartered

4 garlic cloves, quartered

3 large carrots, peeled and cut into large pieces

One 35-ounce (992 g) can peeled imported tomatoes

1 cup (250 ml) dry white wine

1 cup (250 ml) chicken broth

Leaves from 10 thyme sprigs

1 cup (40 g) tightly packed flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Pat the veal shanks dry with paper towels and dredge them lightly with flour. Shake off the excess.

Heat half the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté the shanks, four or five at a time, on both sides until lightly brown. Season the shanks lightly with salt and pepper and, as they are done, transfer them to an 8-quart (8 liter) enamel-lined saucepan or Dutch oven with a tight-fitting lid.

Finely chop the celery, onions, garlic, and carrots. You can do this in a food processor, one vegetable at a time: Pulse the celery until fine. Remove to a small bowl. Pulse the onions and garlic together until fine; add them to the celery. Pulse the carrots until fine. (If you chop everything together, the vegetables will become mushy.)

Heat the remaining oil in the skillet. Add the chopped vegetables and sauté over medium heat for a few minutes. Add the vegetables to the meat, along with the tomatoes, wine, broth, thyme, and parsley.

Bring to a boil over medium heat. Cover the saucepan or Dutch oven and bake in the lower third of the oven for 2 hours, or until the meat is tender.

Uncover and cook for another 30 minutes or so to reduce the sauce and thicken it. The shanks are done when the meat comes easily off the bone and is tender enough to be cut with a fork.

Refrigerate the veal shanks in the pot. (You can do this because it is enamel lined.) As the dish chills, the fat will come to the top and can easily be removed.

When ready to serve, remove the fat with a spoon and reheat the dish, covered, over medium heat. Spoon the sauce over each shank.

Helen Nash
Helen Nash is the author of Helen Nash’s New Kosher Cuisine: Healthy, Simple & Stylish (Overlook Press Hardcover). She studied with world-famous cooks Michael Field, Marcella Hazan, Lydie Marshall, and Millie Chan, and has given demonstrations at New York University and the legendary De Gustibus cooking school at Macy’s, as well as at numerous synagogues and Jewish community centers. In her latest cookbook, Helen Nash’s New Kosher Cuisine: Healthy, Simple & Stylish Helen features many nutritious fusion recipes as well as her old favorites and signature dishes, based on traditional Eastern European cuisine. For more information: http://www.helennashkoshercuisine.com/