As keen followers of the blog you'll know that a week or so ago I went to Jamie's Italian in Reading and when there I had the Ossobuco off the specials board and I really liked it and from that point I've wanted to give it a go myself. So on Saturday morning my partner and I whisked ourselves off to Reading farmers market in the hope of getting ourselves some lovely (well reared of course, just like the cheeky chappie below) shin of veal.
Alas there was none to be found there.....Nor at the four subsequent farms shops and butchers that we tried. There was plenty of diced veal and veal escalopes to be found but no shin, what do they do with them ?!?!?! Perhaps those crafty farmers and butchers are keeping them all for themselves because they are just so damn good or more likely these joints are shipped off to the continent to our European buddies.
There is such a taboo in the UK with regard to veal which I find quite unnecessary. Yes the cows are young when they are slaughtered and yes they do look cute and cuddly but what exactly is the alternative for these cows other than to be destined for the dinner table? The reality is that veal calves are just a by product of the dairy industry. No dairy farmer in their right mind is going to prolong the life of an animal giving it food and pasture just because it looks pretty.
A herd of dairy cows needs no more than one or two bulls to keep it going so when the cows themselves give birth to males a couple maybe saved for working the land but of course these days that is highly unlikely, even then they would be made steer (castrated). There is no financial point in continuing their growth for the 12 months it take for veal to become beef because a dairy cow is a dairy cow for a reason. Why outlay all that cost for something that'll will taste inferior to another animal which has been bred for purpose?
Every single milk giving dairy cow will give birth, not too many people can get their heads around the fact that for a cow to produce milk it has to be pregnant. The cow belongs to the ungulate family which like us are mammals, the female of our species produces milk in the same way, it's life. For every black and white cow you see in every field in the world there will be a calf inside, 50% of which will be male and unwanted for dairy use.The whole animal is useful for other things though apart from it's delicate pale meat. The bones are used widely is the making of stock and other sauces, the rennet used in cheese making also comes from these calves.
The farming and welfare issues of old are being addressed and the vast majority of UK reared veal these days comes from free raised animals that get to spend time in herds for a few months or more and the old aged method of packing them into crates straight from birth is outlawed and hopefully a thing of the past. So instead of blubbing at the thought of tucking into a nice plate of veal just find some that has been reared with welfare in mind and get stuck in.
Find a butchers that stocks veal shin, (Jon Thorners at Sheeplands, Hare Hatch was the only place I could find it locally and even then it was frozen) get yourself two nice slices per person and then crack on with this method of mine for this Italian classic.
Ossobuco with gremolata and polenta.
Serves 2
Ossobuco translates literally as "Bone with a hole" and its quite clear to see why when you have the meat in view because the cut is taken from a cross section of the upper part of the veal shin and you can see the bone with the marrow inside. This marrow melts with the slow cooking leaving the hole that the name suggests.
The dish itself is of Milanese origin and dates back to around the beginning of the 19th century. The original version "Ossobuco in bianco" doesn't use tomatoes but my version is more like the the modern more popular version that does.
All versions are traditionally served with a gremolata which is a mixture of chopped herbs to which I like to bind together with olive oil. Again I've made my own version of this which differs slightly from the original Milanese version and I'm serving mine with plain polenta rather than Risotto ala Milanese as they would in it's place of origin.
For the gremolata just finely chop a couple of cloves of garlic, a good handful of fresh parsley, a few capers and the grated zest of a lemon. Mix these with a tablespoon of so of extra virgin olive oil and leave it in the fridge until you are ready to serve. (You could add some chopped anchovies to this too if you have any)
Firstly preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Then the next thing to do is to dust the meat joints with a light coating of seasoned plain flour. Put a frying pan over a fairly high heat, add a glug of olive oil then brown off the meat for a couple of minutes on each side so that they get a nice colour to them. Do them a couple at a time so you're not overcrowding the pan because this will make you lose heat and the meat will end up boiling instead of searing.
Set these aside while you prepare the vegetables. These vegetables are going to be the base onto which you will roast the veal shin joints and seeing as this is an Italian dish you'll need to prepare a "Soffritto" or as the French would call it "Mirepoix" which is just a mixture of finely chopped onion, carrot and celery, equal amounts of each is fine.To the soffritto add some de-skinned, de-seeded and finely chopped tomatoes, use about two or three fresh tomatoes per person.
Before you put that chopped veg layer into your oven dish firstly give the whole lot little sauté in the frying pan you browned the meat off in. You really want to try and get as much of that flavour into this vegetable mix as you can. When you can see the onions turning opaque it's time to tip the vegetables into your oven dish.
Stick the pan back over a high heat and pour in a good glug of white wine, as this bubbles up it'll de-glaze the pan even more. When you are happy the you've scraped and salvaged as much tasty goodness as you can from the frying pan just pour the reduced wine over the vegetables and on top of this lay your browned off veal shin slices trying not to have them overlapping.
Finally before this Italian masterpiece is sent to the oven pour over a healthy large glass or two.....or three of white wine, add a few stalks of fresh rosemary and a generous seasoning with sea salt and cracked black pepper.
This will need around 90 minutes of cooking time. Try to turn the meat every 30 mins but be careful because it'll get so tender that it might just fall to bits as you do so.
When the cooking time is up take it out the oven and let it rest for a good 10 minutes. While that is happening add some plain polenta to a pan of boiling water and cook until it a nice creamy consistency stirring in a little unsalted butter to finish it off.
To serve spoon a good portion of the polenta into the centre of the plate, (works great with a pasta plate) onto this add a couple of spoonfuls or two of the cooked vegetables then top the stack off with the cooked veal shin.
Finish by spooning over some of the juices from the oven dish and then finally add a liberal sprinkling of the gremolata.
I did take a picture but having just upgraded my iPhone to OS4 without backing it up I have lost all my piccies :-(
