Osso buco is usually a veal shank that is cross cut and braised in vegetables, white wine and stock. It is traditionally served with risotto or polenta and is topped with gremolata. This dish is usually expensive in restaurants.
This dish is pretty easy to make. It is hard to find shanks of any kind. Near where I live they sell beef shanks at my local Asiana Market. They sell mostly the smallest ones.
Anyways.
Just salt and pepper the shanks well.
Brown them on medium high heat on both sides (around 3 minutes a side). (It will come out tasting best if you saved beef fat from something you cooked……you can use oil.
Don’t clean the pan or pot.
Fry up a big onion, a few carrots, one hot pepper, a few celery till almost soft. Add a cup of white wine and let it cook down.
Add around half a can of tomato paste and try to fry it up at the bottom of the pan or pot.
Add around a 14 oz can of Italian tomatoes.
Add 2 bay leaves, Tablespoon thyme, Tablespoon oregano, 3 or 4 garlic cloves. I had seasoned beef jus from something else I made so I added that.
Then it all goes in a baking dish or pan….Or you can do this stove top if you prefer.
This gets covered tight.
It will take at least 3 hours at 375 F The last one I did was a little bigger and took 5 hours. You might need to check on it and add more liquid.
When it finally becomes tender remove the foil that covers the pan and let it go another half hour.
Suggested serving is risotto or polenta.
I had mashed potatoes and Brussel sprouts that I had to use up so that is what we had.
Top the meat with some of the contents of the pan…(some people blend this up Osso it’s smooth…but I didn’t)
Top with gremolata. (parsley, orange & lemon zest, garlic (ground to paste), salt , pepper.
This recipe is an original that is a combination of reading about ramen tostadas from The Samurai Gourmet from Australia and from enjoying sushi tacos from the restaurant Headquarters Grill Bar Sushi in Peoria Arizona. Somehow I came up with something delicious. It was tasting all the seaweed in the sushi tacos that influenced how I made the toatadas. Then I started thing about ramen…..The tastiest part of a bowl of ramen can be the egg so that is what I did. I was thinking that sometimes you add that gochujang to enhance the ramen so I thought that kind of taste would be great on the vegetables I used (radish and pea sprouts). I don’t mean to brag but this came out really great.Serving size is difficult to judge. They do taste great but are small. I can see some people would eat only one while others would eat two or three. I’ll say six portions because they are small and two is one egg a person. You need to make the ramen eggs the day before so they have time to marinate and get all delicious.
Ingredients for around 6 portions
6 eggs
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup mirin
1/3 cup water
1 3oz package of ramen noodles (don’t use flavor packet for this recipe)
water to boil ramen noodles (reserve six tablespoons)
1 egg – lightly beaten
6 Tablespoons reserved water from boiling the ramen noodles
! Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon sweet butter – melted
4 Tablespoons flour
4 .18oz packages roasted seaweed – crumbled
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 Tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon gochujang (or more or less each brand taste different. I recommend the tastier brands from the Asian Market)
2 teaspoons honey
Directions
Make the ramen eggs.
Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add eggs carefully. Turn down the heat till water is barely boiling and time them for 7 minutes. Add eggs to an ice bath. In a quart ziplock bag add the soy sauce, mirin, and water. Peel eggs and add them to zip lock bag. Squeeze out all the air that you can and refrigerate the eggs over night.
Make the ramen tostadas.
In either a pot or a microwaveable dish you need to boil water and cook the ramen noodles for three minutes. You can let it sit while you do other stuff.
In a small bowl combine the egg, reserved water, butter, flour, seaweed, sesame oil, and baking powder. Mix well. Drain the ramen noodles and add them in and mix well.
Set the oven to 325 F.
Prepare a couple sheet pans with parchment paper.
Get a small scooper or use a spoon and try to make 12 even balls of dough with a good amount of room around them.
Then flatten them out…
Put them in the oven on the middle and lower racks for 20 minutes. Then flip them over and do 20 minutes again. Keep repeating till they look like this. Mine took I think an hour 20 minutes.
While you are cooking up the ramen tostadas you have time to prepare the vegetables (Your…choice I did a few radishes that I shredded up, scallions and pea sprouts…but you can just use lettuce or cabbage or other greens) You also have time to make vinaigrette.
In a small dish mix up the soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, gochujang, and honey.
If you are serving all at once you can dress the vegetables. If not keep the vinaigrette on the side so it doesn’t get soggy. I sprinkled eggs with some togatashi.
Chef Davashankar Sharma is a multi award wining famous chef from England. He is also known for London’s best curry award and best Indian restaurant. He is also worked for several Michelin guild restaurants. When you find a recipe from him on the web it is worth doing. I have to say that this recipe is spicy and really delicious. It filled my house with aromatics that smelled amazing. I never tasted any dish like this one from any Indian restaurant that I’ve been to. This recipe Jodhpuri Tawa Chicken translates to frypan cooked chicken from (Jodhpuri now known as Rajasthan) India (North West India). I rounded the recipe some and placed the chicken over cabbage spiced like the potatoes that are suggested. The one thing about the recipe seemed like maybe a misprint to me……but I’m not sure……The amount of potatoes for four people only is about 8 ounces so that is only two ounces a person…..I don’t know if there is a minor misprint in the original recipe or not….I’m thinking that 8 ounces of potatoes is too little a serving for four people…….I used a whole small head of cabbage but I slow roasted it in the oven with the same spices in the recipe and this was a good amount of seasoning too…………for that so I am rounding up the amount of potatoes (or cabbage) to use because everyone wants more than two ounces of potatoes. This recipe makes around 4 servings. I do note that I doubled the amount of potatoes but didn’t double the amount of spices……I think it is plenty of spice use but you might disagree and want to bump up the spice for the potatoes.
1 1/2 lb chicken breast – (I cut mine into 4….and lightly pounded mine thin) do that or cut into 8 without pounding
4 Tablespoons sunflower oil (I substituted canola oil) (for chicken)
1 head of garlic – peeled – rough chopped (for chicken)
8 green chillies (I used serranos) – stems removed, rough chopped (for chicken)
1 Tablespoon oil (sunflower is suggested) (for tomato chutney)
1 teaspoon ginger – fine chopped (for tomato chutney)
1 teaspoon green chili – fine chopped (for tomato chutney)
1 teaspoon red chili powder (for tomato chutney)
1 teaspoon turmeric powder (for tomato chutney)
1 Tablespoon sugar (for tomato chutney)
1 teaspoon Kasundi mustard sauce (I substituted my home made beer mustard) (for tomato chutney)
1 pinch sea salt (for tomato chutney)
1 pound potato peeled and diced (original recipe says to use 200g potato…I used a whole small cabbage (rough chop) that I roasted slow with the same exact seasoning) (the vegetable)
1 teaspoon turmeric powder (the vegetable)
1 teaspoon ginger – fine chop (the vegetable)
1 teaspoon green chili – fine chop (the vegetable)
1 dash sunflower oil (I substituted canola oil) (the vegetable)
1 teaspoon cumin seed (the vegetable)
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter (the vegetable)
1 Tablespoon fresh cilantro (leaves and fine stems) finely chopped (the vegetable)
sea salt to taste (the vegetable)
Directions
Put the garlic, chillies, cilantro, tamarind, and salt into a blender and blend till smooth. Rub the marinade all over the chicken and marinate for at least an hour.
Make tomato chutney. Bring a small pan of water to boil. Blanch tomatoes two minutes, then drain. Cool and rough chop.
Heat oil in a sauce pot on medium heat and add ginger and chilli. Cook one minute, then add red chili powder, turmeric and a pinch of salt and cook another minute. Add chopped tomatoes and turn down the heat to low and gently simmer for 6-8 minutes until the mixture thickens. Add sugar and mustard. Taste for seasonings and set to the side.
For the potato mash. Bring a medium pan of water to boil and add the turmeric and ginger and a big pinch of salt and boil the potatoes until soft (around 15 minutes).
Heat a small splash of oil on a small pan and add the cumin seeds till they sizzle and remove from heat.
Mash the potatoes with butter, cilantro, and fried cumin seeds until smooth and keep warm.
Heat up a fry pan on medium heat with a good splash of oil. Add the chicken when the oil is hot. Fry chicken around 3-4 minutes a side or until cooked threw.
Serve chicken topped with chutney over the potato mash (or cabbage if you made cabbage like me)
A Special THANKS to Chef Davashankar Sharma for this FORKING Amazing recipe.
water or vegetable stock (to boil cauliflower) (optional add parm cheese rinds if you have them)
2 cloves garlic (just for boiling the cauliflower)
2 Tablespoons vegetable base (for if you are using water…DON’T USE if using vegetable stock)
1 cup parmesan cheese – shredded
4 eggs – lightly beaten
15 oz ricotta cheese – drained
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground fresh nutmeg
1 lemon (just the zest)
non stick spray
semolina for dusting the pan (around two tablespoons)
Directions
Bring a sauce pot of either water with soup base or vegetable stock to a boil. Add garlic cloves and cauliflower. Add cheese rinds if you happen to have any around. Boil the cauliflower till very tender. Remove the garlic and cheese rinds. The cauliflower needs around 15 minutes) then drain (you might want to save liquid for making a soup). Blend up the cauliflower and put to the side. In a large mixing bowl mix together the parmesan, eggs, ricotta, pepper, nutmeg, and zest. Now add the cauliflower a little bit at a time till incorporated.
Set oven to 350 degrees F.
Spray whatever pans that you are using with non stock spray.
Dust the pans with semolina.
Pour in the cauliflower mixture. Get the mixture level by banging the pan on the counter gently.
Place on the middle rack of the preheated 350 degree F oven till done. Timing will differ depending on what pan you are using. I used a bundt pan and mine took 35 minutes. If you do cup cake sized I am guessing that it will take much less time maybe as soon as 15 minutes.
The sformato should be eaten either room temperature or warmed up. I think that it is easiest to make the day before. Cut what ever portions that you need and reheat to serve.
You can dress up the sformato a bit if you like. I added my pesto, tomato sauce, fresh basil, cherry peppers and pine nuts. I think most people only dress with a few herbs and olive oil.
I came across a Food & Wine Magazine recipe for Endives in Schmaltz with Peanuts recipe. I have some endives that I just picked up and I have saved chicken fat in my freezer that I save from stewed chicken that I make. So my chicken fat is a little different than schmaltz but is similar. I didn’t have fresh mint so I used some dry mint with fresh basil and chives. I had a little bit of trouble with the recipe probably because I didn’t weigh my endive. My endives got fork tender and were starting to fall apart while I was frying so I couldn’t leave the endives long enough in the pan to evaporate the liquid…..So I did things a little different to make it work. I still fried the endives till soft and finished them under the broiler to char. I’m thinking that maybe the recipe didn’t work for me because I didn’t weigh my endives so I am guessing that my endives were too small so the 5 Tablespoons of schmaltz were too much to use……..I used 5 endives instead of the 4 so I didn’t worry about weighing them but I should have weighed them…We can both learn by my mistake. When ever a recipe also gives a weigh then that means you need to weigh it.
Ingredients for around 4 servings
4 heads Belgian endive halved longways (about 1 pound)
fresh crushed sea salt to taste
up to 5 Tablespoons schmaltz, saved chicken fat, or sweet butter divided into 2 & 3 Tablespoons
2 Tablespoons water
2 teaspoons fresh squeezed lime juice + lime wedges for serving
chopped roasted salted peanuts for serving guessing I used about 1/2 cup…could go lighter.
2 Tablespoons fresh mint – chopped (I didn’t have fresh mint so I used around 1 1/2 teaspoons of dried mint)
2 Tablespoons fresh basil – chopped or torn
2 Tablespoons fresh chives or scallions – chopped
Directions
Sprinkle cut sides of endive with sea salt to taste. Heat 2 Tablespoons of fat in a large skillet on medium high. Add endives and cook cut side down around 2 1/2 minutes. Flip endives over add the two tablespoons water and the lime juice. Cover pan and cook about two more minutes or until the endives are fork tender.
Remove lid. Add the rest of the fat and bast the endives with the fat. Until they brown…about another three minutes….Mine were starting to fall apart and didn’t brown too much so I pulled mine out and broiled them a few minutes.
Serve endives on a platter and finish them with peanuts, mint, chives, and basil. Serve with lime wedges.
A Special THANKS! to Food & Wine Magazine so that I could come up with this dish!
I had mushrooms that were getting old so I wanted to do something interesting with them. One of or maybe the most talented vegetable chefs in the world is Yotam Ottolenghi so I looked up whatever mushroom recipes that I could find of his on the web. In case you didn’t know….Yotam Ottolenghi is multi award wining and James Beard award winning cook book author, chef, and restauranteur. Anyways I found a few of his mushroom recipes and they all sounded worth trying…..Today I picked the Marinated Mushrooms with Walnuts and Tahini Yogurt Recipe because it used the variety of mushrooms that was similar to what I had at home. After I marinated them I was so surprised at how special the mushrooms were. I only made a few minor changes that were due to what I had at home and they also went marvelously well. I added the Fried enoki mushrooms……I thought they added something to an already FORKING Amazing recipe. You don’t have to add the fried enoki if you don’t want to.
Ingredients for around 4 servings
8oz mixed mushrooms – cleaned, cut off bases
5 oz seafood mushrooms – cleaned cut off base
4 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 Tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon pure maple syrup
1 lemon – just the fresh squeezed juice (for marinade)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
fresh cracked black pepper to taste
1 lemon (just the juice for tahini yogurt)
2 tablespoons tahini paste
1 garlic clove – ground to paste
1/2 cup greek style yogurt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 cup peas
3 oz toasted walnuts lightly broken
2 Tablespoons fresh basil – torn or chiffonade
2 Tablespoons fresh marjoram leaves
optional – 5 oz enoki mushrooms
optional 1/2 cup potato starch
optional 4 oz butter for frying
Directions
In a large bowl mix together the oil, vinegar, maple syrup, juice of one lemon, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and black pepper to taste. Mix in the mushrooms and let them marinate an hour.
In a small bowl combine the juice of one lemon, tahini, garlic, and yogurt. Mix well and set to the side.
After the mushrooms are marinated add the cumin, peas, and walnuts mix well. Top with fresh basil and marjoram. Then dollop with tahini yogurt.
If you are making the crispy enoki mushrooms all you do is a dollop of butter on medium high. Add the mushrooms dragged threw the potato starch. The mushrooms only need 2-3 minutes a side. You do have to clean the pan between the three batches because the butter burns. I usually fry with oil but butter always makes mushrooms crispier….
Enjoy!
A Special THANKS!!!!!! To Yotam Ottolenghi for his FORKING AMAZING Recipe so that I could make this dish.
Someone in one of the food groups that I am in eats various cucumber salads with fish for breakfast. I thought that is a good idea and looked up recipes for fish with cucumbers. There are a lot of them on the web. The recipe is inspired by chef Simon Hulstone and I didn’t use his mackerel recipe because I don’t have fresh fish and but I did use his Pickled Cucumber recipe because it sounded so different and interesting. I also made the mustard seed pink peppercorn tuile for the beet tartar that I made recently. Both recipes make about twice as many tuile as you need and you will have some leftover. The good news is that these tuile keep well in a zip lock bag for a few weeks. Serving size is difficult to judge. This recipe makes around 3 servings of mackerel pate and cucumbers but you will end up with much more tuile than you need…You can also skip the tuile and use crackers or a thin toast instead.
Ingredients for around 3 servings
2 oz butter (room temperature) (tuile)
2 oz flour (tuile)
2 1/2 oz sugar (tuile)
1 egg white – lightly beaten (tuile)
1 1/2 teaspoons brown mustard seeds (tuile)
1/4 teaspoon pink peppercorns – crush with fingers (tuile)
1 long English cucumber – cut in thin slices
3 cups water
1 green cardamon pod
1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds
1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds
1 bay leaf
1 sprig fresh tarragon
1/4 cup good quality white vinegar
2 cloves
5 black peppercorns
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
6oz can mackerel drained – shredded (I used Trader Joes wild caught skinless boneless)
2 Tablespoons sour cream (or to taste)
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter – room temperature – or to taste
1/2 teaspoon prepared horseradish – or to taste
pinch smoked paprika – or to taste
pinch alderwood smoked sea salt – or to taste
pinch ground white pepper – or to taste
Directions
Make the tuile dough.
In a small mixing bowl combine the butter, flour, sugar, egg white, mustard seeds, and peppercorns. Mix well. Wrap it in plastic wrap and chill it a few hours or over night.
Make the pickled cucumbers.
Bring to a boil the water, cardamon pod, caraway seeds, mustard seeds, bay leaf, fresh tarragon, cloves, peppercorns and salt. Let cool and then add the vinegar and cucumbers. The longer this sits the better it taste. Refrigerate. Use when ready.
Make the tuile.
Set oven to 300 degrees F.
Leave dough sit out to warm up.
Fill a pastry bag with some dough with a writing tip.
Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.
This dough spreads so you want to do shapes in spirals. Put them in the middle rack of the oven. They are down when they start to brown. Timing will differ because the size and oven will differ. Mine took around 12 minutes. You can give the tuile a different shape if you scrap them off while they are hot and let them cool hanging off a small box, spoon, or pan.
Make the mackerel pate.
In a small mixing bowl combine the mackerel, sour cream, butter, horseradish, smoked paprika, smoked salt, white pepper. Adjust to your liking.
Optional some sweet pickled peppers, capers, fresh dill and edible flowers would be nice to add to this dish.
ENJOY!
A special THANKS!!!! to chef Simon Hulstone for his amazing recipe so I could come up with what I got here.
I had cucumber to use up and came across Kerth Gumbs recipe for cucumber gazpacho with Parmesan Custard….I thought WOW I never made parmesan custard before..this sounds pretty good. I made a lot of changes to the gazpacho part of the recipe because I didn’t have some of the ingredients. Another difference is that I wanted my gazpacho to be lighter and left out the bread that often is blended into most gazpachos. I also used my own jalapeño brine that is infused with great flavors instead of Chardonnay vinegar but you can use Chardonnay vinegar if you don’t have delicious home made jalapeño brine from home made pickled jalapeños . I chose not to add bread to the parmesan custard and kept it lighter. The original recipe is made with basil oil but I used cilantro and chives instead for the oil. Portion size is difficult to to judge because it depends on the size serving. I’d say that it makes at least 4 servings.
2 English cucumbers – rough chopped
1/2 head celery – rough chopped
1-2 green hot peppers (I used 2 guero (greenish yellow chili) peppers) core & stem removed and rough chopped
1/2 cup fresh cilantro – leaves and tiny soft stems – rough chopped
1 Tablespoon fresh parsley leaves – chopped
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves – chopped
1 1/2 cups home made jalapeño brine (pickled jalapenos recipe from www.TheForkingTruth.com) or Chardonnay vinegar
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon Maldon salt
1 cup whole milk (parmesan custard)
2oz parmesan cheese – fine grated (parmesan custard)
Blend the cucumber, celery, chili, cilantro, parsley, basil, brine or vinegar, sugar, and salt. Taste it and decide if you want to add anything. Put it into the refrigerator until ready to serve.
Make cilantro-chive oil (or scallion…if you use fresh scallions use the green parts and boil with cilantro)
Boil the cilantro for 20 seconds and immediately put into an ice bath. When the cilantro is cool you can blend it with about 60% of the oil and chives and then strain it. Keep the solids and blend again with the remaining oil and strain again. Keep to the side until ready to use. I do note that this makes more oil than you need but you can use it for salads and other things.
Make the parmasan custard.
Warm the milk in a large pan and add the parmesan and blend. Strain and let cool.
The custards need to be steamed in ramekins that are sprayed with nonstick spray. I don’t have ramekins so I used cup cake liners in a bamboo steamer.
Put a pan of water on to a medium boil. If you don’t have a bamboo steamer you can always a mesh strainer. The custards need to cook about 12 minutes.
Get your gazpachos ready and add one or two parmesan custards to each bowl. Top the custard with some cilantro/chive oil.
So pretty too I played with the picture on the computer.
ENJOY!
A special THANKS!!!!!! To chef Kerth Gumbs for his FORKING AMAZING recipe so that I could come up with what I made.
I was starting to do someone’s recipe for cauliflower salad and I didn’t like it so I changed the recipe into something completely different. The one thing that is pretty cool and interesting is from pickling the cabbage gets a nice texture. I thought that the pickle taste would work really well with the tarragon and it does. The onion jam puree just elevates it some and isn’t too sweet. Portions are difficult to judge because everyone likes a different amount. Also the size of the vegetables do differ as well. I’d say you should get 6 or more servings.
Ingredients for around 6 servings
1 cauliflower – broke down into florets
1 cabbage – core removed – quarter and quarter each quarter
3 cups white vinegar
3 cups water
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
1 Tablespoon honey
3 bay leaves
5 juniper berries
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
optional – a little paprika to sprinkle on the cauliflower
2 large onions – thinly sliced (onion jam puree)
2 Tablespoons olive oil (onion jam puree)
sea salt to taste (onion jam puree)
optional 1/2 a cooked beet – chopped (onion jam puree)
1 teaspoon sugar (onion jam puree)
1 teaspoon honey (onion jam puree)
splash of red wine (onion jam puree)
splash of red vinegar (onion jam puree)
1 cup tarragon
1/2 cup olive oil (about)
Directions
Bring the vinegar, water, salt, honey, bay leaves, juniper berries, and peppercorns to a boil. Add the cauliflower florets and boil for two minutes and let them drain. Then use the same boiling liquid and boil the cabbage for two minutes. Take that out and let drain. Remove and discard bayleaves, peppercorns and juniper berries that you come across on the cauliflower and cabbage.
Set oven to 400 degrees F.
Spread out cauliflower (if desired sprinkle the cauliflower with a small amount of paprika) on a baking sheet and spread out cabbage on a baking sheet. When oven is at 400 F put the baking sheets on the middle rack till the vegetables at slightly browned. (in my oven this took twenty minutes…but all ovens do differ) Take out vegetables when they are done.
Make the onion jam.
Put a sauce pan on medium low heat with the olive oil, onions and some sea salt. Mix well and cover the pan loosely. Stir occasionally. Cook till onions are clear. Add the sugar and honey and cook till it lightly caramelizes. Add the splashes of vinegar, wine and the beet. Let it cook about 10 minutes then take off the heat and blend up. (It will be safer to use a stick blender. (if you use a regular blender then you might want to wait till mixture cools some.
Make the tarragon oil
Boil the tarragon for twenty seconds and put right away in an ice bath. When cool pull off all the leaves and blend with oil. Then strain. I re-used the blended tarragon that I strained and blended with oil again and strained again.
I watched The Talk TV Show and chef Shota Nakajima made his chicken teriyaki and gave the recipe for it on The Talk’s website….www.TheTalk.com I had a 1/2 turkey breast in my freezer that needed to be used so I thought I’d use chef Nakajima’s teriyaki recipe for it. Since I was using a boneless turkey breast I thought that I only need to marinate 4 hours so that is what I did then I fried it up in a stainless pan with non stick spray. It came out delicious and moist almost like I sous vide it. What a great recipe for teriyaki.
Ingredients for around 6 servings
1/2 a turkey breast off the bone. (mine had skin but you can do it with or without skin)
2 cups soy sauce
1 cup mirin
2 Tablespoons pure honey
1 Tablespoon garlic puree
1 Tablespoon ginger puree
1 Tablespoon tahini paste
1 teaspoon nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon ground sesame seeds
1 teaspoon ground white pepper
non stick spray
Directions
Whisk everything together (except the turkey and the non-stock spray) Bring mixture to a boil on medium heat. Let cool. Reserve 1/2 cup for serving.
Marinate the turkey 1/2 breast in a ziplock gallon bag refrigerated for NO MORE than four hours. Remove from bag and either grill till cooked threw (I do warn you that this will make a mess) or fry up in a pan on medium high heat sprayed with non stick spray around 10 minutes a side or till cooked threw. Serve with rice and drizzle sauce on the top.
A special THANKS!!!! To chef Shota Nakajima for his FORKING Amazing Teriyaki recipe!