Osso Buco

Osso Buco for the lady …

Remember that old TV ad? A waiter (or maybe it’s the chef) is carrying two dinner plates and he puts one in front of a woman and says “Osso Buco for the lady” with a great big grin on his face and she seems pretty happy too.

I don’t know why that ad flashes through my mind occasionally like some old dream that I half remember.

But what I can’t remember is if it was an ad for toothpaste (the toothpaste will clean away the tomato sauce stain). Or whether it was for Alka Seltzer (which wouldn’t say very much for the food, would it?). 

I did a Google search but came up with no information. 

But I think about this ad every time I make Osso Buco, one of my favorite winter dishes. It’s a comforting, hearty, warming and nourishing dinner. I make a big batch in advance, wrap portions in plastic containers so that every time I need a quick dinner there is one I can take out of cold storage.

Veal shanks can be expensive, for sure. I wait for a sale, buy lots and then cook.

I also serve Osso Buco for company. It’s a beautiful dinner that’s rustic but fancy too, especially over risotto or pasta. Pasta’s easier, so that’s usually the way for me.

Osso Buco

4 large or 8 small veal shanks, 2” thick

1/4 cup flour

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 carrot, finely chopped

1 onion, finely chopped

1 stalk celery, finely chopped

1 large clove garlic, finely chopped

1 strip lemon peel 1-1/2” long

1/2 cup white wine

1/2 cup veal or beef stock

2 tomatoes, peeled, deseeded and chopped (or use canned tomatoes)

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste

freshly ground black pepper

2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh marjoram or oregano or 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil

Dredge the veal shanks in the flour. Shake off excess flour. Heat the olive oil in a deep sauté pan over medium heat. Brown the meat, cooking for about about 12 minutes, turning the shanks occasionally. Remove the meat from the pan. Add the carrot, onion, celery and garlic and cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the lemon peel, wine, stock, tomatoes and tomato paste to the pan. Bring the ingredients to a simmer. Return the meat to the pan. Sprinkle the ingredients with the salt, pepper and marjoram (or other herb). Cover the pan and simmer gently over low heat for about 2 hours or until the meat is very tender. Makes 4 servings

Kale and White Bean Soup with Egg and Cheese

During Hurricane Sandy we lost power for 6 days and it was cold, cold, cold in the house. Then we got an early snowstorm, and we didn’t lose power, but it took me over 5 hours to get home, driving on icy roads.

It’s only November. There’s an entire winter ahead and from the looks of things, I’m thinking it’s going to be cold and stormy.

That has inspired me to think: SOUP.

Soup is good, isn’t it? Like a liquid electric blanket that warms you up inside and out.

Soup. Now that the stormy season is here, it’s what’s for dinner at my house.

Like this one:

Kale and White Bean Soup with Egg and Cheese

• 1 pound kale

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 large onion, chopped

• 2 cans cannellini beans (about 15 ounces each)

• 6 cups vegetable stock

• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

• 4 large eggs

• 4 slices Italian-style bread, cut one-inch thick

• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Wash the kale leaf by leaf to remove any dirt or sand. Remove and discard the thick stems. Cut the leaves and thin stems into shreds. In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 3-4 minutes or until softened and beginning to brown. Mash half the beans and add them to the pan. Add the stock and bring the liquid to a boil. Add the kale, remaining beans and some salt and pepper to taste. Reduce the heat to a simmer, partially cover the pan and cook for 20 minutes. Beat the eggs. Gently pour small portions of the beaten egg into the soup in different places around the pan. Do not stir for 2 minutes. While the eggs are cooking, toast the bread. Stir the soup and ladle it into serving bowls. Top with the toast and sprinkle with cheese.

Makes 4 servings

Short Ribs with Barbecue Sauce

It took me over 5 hours to get home last night. It usually takes 50-75 minutes.

And in addition to the frightening drive on icy roads, I had barely 1/4 tank of gas.

On my way in to NYC from Connecticut in the morning there were no open gas stations. Going back home later, I found one on the highway — they only had regular and my car needs premium, but I bought some anyway. Which was a good thing because otherwise I never would have made it home.

We were stopped for over an hour because of the need to clear accidents on the icy road.

But I have to say that when we could drive, everyone was careful, cautious and respectful. I have never seen this kind of courtesy or caution before. No one drove faster than 10 MPH. No one switched lanes. No one tailgated. Everyone left enough room so that if a car skidded — which mine did 3-4 times — there would be plenty of room and time to straighten out.

Thank you, thank you, fellow drivers.

I learned from a storm long ago, to carry water and snacks in the car. I had graham crackers, pistachio nuts, a clementine and leftover coffee in a thermos.

It was the most nerve wracking drive I’ve ever taken. I spent the time listening to the radio in between thinking about what I would do if I hit another car or my car swerved off onto the grass or I ran out of gas.

I have to confess to more than one or two fantasies about my car skidding off the road, into the railing and over the edge into an icy stream. And about snow-laden trees falling on my car.

But I got home. And I was grateful to get home safely. It didn’t matter that it took so long. 

And I am lucky because there was a hot dinner, a set table and a glass of wine waiting for me.

I had cooked some short ribs recently and during the power outage they stayed cold in the freezer, the plastic container packed in ice. Ed put them in a casserole, put them in the oven and voila! dinner.

So, I recommend making a load of these, store them in portions in your freezer and then you can have dinner in a flash when needed too.

Stay safe everyone.

Short Ribs with Barbecue Sauce

5-6 pounds beef short ribs 

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 medium onions, sliced

2 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks

2 stalks celery, peeled and cut into chunks

2 medium parsnips, peeled and cut into chunks

2 cups cubed, peeled butternut squash

1 cup ketchup 

1 cup red wine 

1 cup beer 

1 cup beef stock 

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar 

2 teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce 

3 tablespoons brown sugar 

2-3 thyme sprigs 

1 bay leaf

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Dry the surface of the meat with paper towels. Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Working in batches, cook the meat, turning the pieces to brown them, for 4-5 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove the meat and set it aside. Add the onions, carrots, celery, parsnips and squash to the pan and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the ketchup. Pour in the red wine, beer, stock, cider vinegar and Worcestershire Sauce and stir the ingredients. Stir in the brown sugar. Return the meat to the pan and spoon some of the sauce over them. Place the thyme sprigs and bay leaf in the liquid. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Bring the liquid to a boil. Lower the heat, cover the pan and cook at a bare simmer for 4-5 hours or until the meat is fork tender (or place in the oven at 225 degrees). Makes 6 servings

Macaroni and Cheese

What do I cook when the grandkids come for a visit? Well, lots of things depending on which one, but I know I am safe if I have some Macaroni and Cheese on hand. Just in case.

All of my grandchildren like Macaroni and Cheese.

Doesn’t everybody?

If I have time, I make the recipe ahead and freeze portions in one-serving casserole dishes, then thaw and bake them until they’re hot enough.

Macaroni and Cheese is easy enough to make. And yet people ask me questions about it all the time. Mostly about the sauce separating or feeling grainy or gritty. So, here’s some tips for would-be Macaroni and Cheese makers out there. Followed by my standard recipe.

1. You can use a variety of cheeses, even blue-type cheeses, which give the dish a tangy taste. Although most people use cheddar by itself, that can make the texture grainy.

2. Use young cheeses such as asiago, non-aged cheddar, havarti, muenster, non-aged gouda, and so on. These have more water content than aged, older, drier cheeses and melt more easily, keeping the mixture stable.

3. Include American cheese; adding a bit of American cheese to the mix can stabilize the sauce too.

4. Use whole milk rather than skim because fat serves as a stabilizer.

5: Shred, chop or grate the cheese so that it melts more easily when you add it to the hot white sauce. Only add a little at a time and mix it in thoroughly before adding more. If you add cheese all at once there’s more of a tendency for the sauce to separate.

Macaroni and Cheese

• 8 ounces elbow macaroni

• 3 tablespoons butter

• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• 2 cups whole milk

• 1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste

• pinch or two of freshly grated nutmeg

• 4 ounces American cheese, shredded or chopped

• 2 ounces Muenster, Gouda or a blue-veined cheese, shredded, chopped or crumbled

• 2 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded or chopped

• 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cook the macaroni until it is al dente, drain and set aside. In a saucepan melt the butter over low-medium heat. When it looks foamy, add the flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes, without letting the mixture become brown. Gradually add the milk and stir constantly using a whisk until the sauce is smooth and thickened. Stir in the salt, nutmeg, American cheese, Muenster (or other) cheese and 2 ounces of cheddar cheese and whisk the sauce until the cheese has melted and the sauce is smooth. Stir the sauce into the cooked macaroni. Spoon into a baking dish and top with grated cheddar cheese. Bake for a few minutes until the grated cheese is hot and melty or the bread crumbs are golden brown.

Makes 4 servings

Mom's Fried Chicken

I work out twice a week with a trainer whose name is Robbie and usually as I am grunting and sweating and trying to do pushups and mountain climbers and crunches and generally trying to work off the calories, what do we talk about?

Food.

We spend endless amounts of time talking about what we like to eat, what we ate, what we will eat.

We ask about what we’ll be cooking that night. Or on the coming weekend. Or for someone’s birthday or Mother’s Day or what have you.

So the other day we got to talking about Judgement Day. You hear it on some radio stations and there are signs on the highway that Judgement Day is coming on May 21st.

Naturally this seemed like the perfect opportunity to talk about what we would eat if it were our last day on earth.

Wow, getting it down to one thing is too difficult, so we decided it would be a whole meal, plus maybe a cocktail hour with hors d’oeuvre and also dessert. We even talked about what alcoholic beverage we would choose and whether we would close it all out with a cigarette, or something.

The only thing we both picked were franks-in-blankets. Which is good, I have a box of them in my freezer.

But we spent an hour on this topic and I started thinking that if I could have anything, it would be my mother’s fried chicken, made the way she made it. Only she isn’t here to make it, which is maybe why I miss it so much.

What made her fried chicken so special is the simple coating, just seasoned flour, and the cooking fat: vegetable shortening. Yep, that awful stuff that clogs your arteries. But hey, if it’s the last day on earth, what’s the difference? 

One other thing my mother did to make her fried chicken taste so good — after she coated the pieces with flour, she let them air dry for a while. That way the coating sticks and doesn’t fall off in the pan.

The result? Crispy, dark golden brown, juicy, sumptuous chicken.

She made this dish often and I sometimes long for it. I don’t remember when I last cooked it, but it’s time now.

My mother used a whole chicken but I am going to cook only the wings. If it’s Judgement Day why bother with the meat? It’s really the skin and fried outside I like. And there’s that fabulous little bit of meat in that center wing part. My mother always gave that part to me and told me it was the softest, sweetest part of the chicken.

She was right.

Good memories. Good chicken. Here’s the recipe. You can use vegetable oil instead of shortening.

Mom’s Fried Chicken

• 12 chicken wings, cut into pieces
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon paprika
• 3/4 teaspoon salt or to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• shortening or vegetable oil

Rinse the chicken pieces and set them aside. In a large dish, mix the flour with the paprika, salt, garlic powder and black pepper. Coat the chicken pieces with the seasoned flour. Place them on a cake rack to air dry for 25-30 minutes. Heat the shortening or vegetable oil in a deep saute pan over medium-high heat (should be about 1/2-inch) to 365 degrees (a bread crumb will sizzle quickly when you add it to the pan). Add a few chicken pieces at a time (adding too many will make the cooking oil too cool) and cook, turning the pieces occasionally, for 8-10 minutes or until crispy and golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Makes 12

Meatballs in Marinara Sauce

I usually hate when there’s a month (or more) long approach to a holiday. Like seeing Hallowe’en paraphernalia right after Labor Day.

But it’s been so cold and snowy where I live that the Valentine’s Day heart things and the boxes of chocolates and a host of articles I’ve been noticing for the past week actually cheer me, even though the holiday is nearly 3 weeks away. Valentine’s Day means February is half over and we’ll be almost through this winter.

But Valentine’s Day is also a little sad for me because it’s one of the days I miss my Dad the most. He always sent me Valentines. Sometimes it was one of those cartoon cards children buy in packs to give to their classmates. But I could always count on getting a card from him. I miss them. And him.

His cooking? Well, not so much. He made fabulous pancakes and waffles, hot chocolate and a few other things. But entrees were not his forte. Once, when my Mom was sick he attempted meatballs in tomato sauce. He took plain meat, shaped them into mountain peaks and spread tomato paste on top. Then he broiled them. Ohmyohmyohmy were they bad. I don’t remember too many meals from when I was a kid but that one is vivid.

So, in honor of my Dad, with visions of Valentine’s Day and springtime and warm weather ahead, I give you my recipe for Meatballs in Tomato sauce the way Dad never made them.

Meatballs in Marinara Sauce 

• 3 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 medium onion, chopped

• 4 medium cloves garlic, chopped

• 2 28-ounce cans Italian style tomatoes, chopped, with liquid

• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

• 1/2 pound ground turkey

• 1/2 pound ground veal

• 1/2 pound ground beef

• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

• 2 large eggs

• 3 frozen hamburger buns, grated

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Heat the olive oil in a large saute pan over low-medium heat. Add the onion and cook stirring occasionally, for 2-3 minutes, or until softened. Add the garlic and cook briefly. Add the tomatoes, 2 tablespoons of the basil and salt and pepper to taste. Bring the ingredients to a simmer and cook the sauce for 30 minutes. While the sauce is cooking, place the turkey, veal and beef in a large bowl and mix gently to combine them. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons basil, the parsley, eggs and the grated buns. Mix ingredients and shape into 12 meatballs. Place the meatballs on a baking sheet and roast for about 15 minutes, turning them occasionally to brown on all sides. Place the meatballs into the cooked sauce. Cook for another 30 minutes.

Makes 4 servings

Mom’s Macaroni and Cheese

I’m cooked out. Done. Finished. The snow kept me in for days and I’ve cooked and put away enough food for the rest of the winter. I feel like a squirrel.

So, instead of cooking again I cleaned my fridge. Which reminded me of my mother because in my fridge was some old American cheese, a little darker in color around the edges and somewhat hardened.

Why does this remind me of my mother?

Because I remember my mother cleaning out the fridge and finding crusty American cheese, which she then used (with lots of other cheese) to make macaroni and cheese and it was the best macaroni and cheese you could ever want.

I once wrote about this for one my newspaper articles. My mom was still alive then and she was terribly embarrassed by what I said. Embarrassed that she would use crusty old cheese for cooking.

But I assured her that I was saying good things about her. Admittedly she wasn’t the thriftiest person I ever knew, but she did have a knack for leftovers and macaroni and cheese was one of her best. No need to be embarrassed to use perfectly good stuff even if it is not perfectly new. After all, cheese is supposed to age right? The cheese she found (and that I found) wasn’t moldy or rotten or smelly. Just a little dry. And when you put dried up old cheese in a hot liquid it melts into velvety sauce. So good.

And I guess I am not cooked out after all because I am about to make some Macaroni and Cheese. Here’s my mom’s recipe:

Mom’s Macaroni and Cheese

8 ounces elbow macaroni

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 cups whole milk

1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste

4 ounces American cheese

2 ounces blue-veined cheese

2 ounces sharp cheddar cheese

1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese, approximately, optional

bread crumbs, optional

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cook the macaroni until it is al dente, drain and set aside. In a saucepan melt the butter over low-medium heat. When it looks foamy, add the flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes, without letting the mixture become brown. Gradually add the milk and stir constantly using a whisk until the sauce is smooth and thickened. Stir in the salt, American cheese, blue-veined cheese and 2 ounces of cheddar cheese and whisk the sauce until the cheese has melted and the sauce is smooth. Stir the sauce into the cooked macaroni. Spoon into a baking dish and top with grated cheddar cheese or bread crumbs. Bake for a few minutes until the grated cheese is hot and melty or the bread crumbs are golden brown. OR serve without the cheese or bread crumb topping. Makes 4 servings