Native Breed Beef Ossobuco for Slow BraisingOssobuco, or osso buco, is traditionally a speciality veal cut from Lombardy in northern Italy, but it is equally delicious when prepared with our native breed beef. A hearty and luxurious one pot cut, beef ossobuco is a full slice of beef shin, cut straight through the marrow bone. As it slowly braises, the bone releases deep, complex flavour, while the marrow enriches the cooking juices and helps create beautifully tender meat. Ideal for autumn and winter cooking, beef ossobuco is also remarkably versatile, pairing just as well with lighter, fresher flavours through spring and summer. Chef Valentine Warner Inspires“This cut across the shin yields the tenderest results, yet demands a longer, more patient cook so that the collagen content delivers its melting, satin mouthfeel. An embarrassment of riches for such a reasonably priced cut, it also offers up that jellied jewel of marrow from within the bone. Classically, it is best known in Italy, famous for its coupling with saffron risotto, the beef cooked in a rich sauce of tomatoes, white wine and carrots, then delivered onto the oozing, vivid yellow, unctuous rice beneath. Alternatively, braised with white wine, green olives and diced fennel, it is equally wonderful with polenta. Even simpler is to lower this cut into a mix of anchovies melted in a little oil with a raw garlic clove, tinned tomatoes, tomato purée, red wine and fresh basil, and let it braise until tender. If braised simply and carefully with just a little thyme, onion, garlic and brandy, with the sauce reduced and the meat allowed to go cold, the beef can be put in a pithivier, the puff pastry crown opening into untold joy. In Mexico, I’ve enjoyed shin cooked in a pozole-style stew with sweet squash, rehydrated dried maize kernels, a little chilli and lime juice. So very delicious! A Vietnamese pho-style soup with its spices, charred ginger and fish sauce is simply delicious, the marrow oil floating to the top to be lifted with the noodles. Braised with miso and saké, then thickened with pounded walnuts, beef shin can make for an unutterably delicious Japanese winter stew. Lastly, I cannot help thinking the modern chilli con carne is an overthought idea and full of far more ingredients than it probably ever was. Beans and corn kernels were dried and carried easily, with the grazing lands probably prevalent in scrub herbs such as brush sage and wild thyme. Chillies from Mexico were likely traded, and limes perhaps also, as a valuable source of vitamins. Keeping it this simple, with the likely addition of onions and maybe pouring in a little beer and coffee, has delivered very tasty results. I think those cowboys would agree this was more how it was.”
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