Ossobuco Milanese

My first ever encounter with ossobuco was on my first visit with the parents of my first 'serious' boyfriend. Lots of 'firsts' in that sentence. That was 36 years ago (where has time gone ?). My then boyfriend's mum, Nadine cooked this delectable, succulent, fall apart meat dish. 

When finished all four of the family where looking at my plate. "Don't you eat the marrow ?" Ready to pounce. "Oh, you eat that ? Okay, I'll eat it too then. " That's when I was completely sold.

It's been on the menu regularly since then in my own home, whenever I can get my hands on veal shin, that is. And that was a while ago now, until Sophie gave me some, from their own rosé veal the other day.

Ingredients for 2

• 2 to 4 disks of veal shin (2 to 3 cm thick)
• flour to coat the meat (seasoned with salt and pepper)
• olive oil (a glug)
• 50 gr butter
• 1 or 2 carrots, peeled and chopped finely
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped finely
• 2 celery sticks, washed and chopped finely
• 1 fat clove of garlic, peeled and grated or finely chopped
• 5 sage leaves
• a few sprigs of thyme
• a few shavings of unwaxed lemon peel
• 200 ml dry white wine
• 200 ml veal or chicken stock
• seasoning and chopped parsley for finishing

Preparation

• Give the meat a dust bath in the flour. I usually do this by putting flour and seasoning in a freezer bag, drop in some meat and shake it around while closing off the bag with your hand. You don't want to give yourself a dust bath, do you ?
• On the hob heat the olive oil in a deep and wide enough frying pan to place the meat in one layer. Brown the meat crusty on both sides. Put them on a plate and set aside.
• Turn down the heat and melt the butter. Add the vegetables (carrot, onion, celery) together with the lemon zest, garlic, thyme and sage. Sautee until soft.
• Turn the heat back on high, place the meat on top of vegetables and pour in the white wine. Let it bubble until the wine has reduced by half.
• Add the stock and return the heat to the lowest setting, cover with lid and simmer until the meat is tender.
• Adjust the seasoning with salt and black pepper.
• Sprinkle over the chopped parsely.

Serve this with creamy polenta, risotto or plain rice. We went for cappellini.

A year or so after the first visit with the boyfriend's parents, his mother made this again. It seems like we came full circle. He broke it off with me after that.

Oh well, I added a great dish to my repertoire and I've since met my wonderful husband, Bert. 

Patricia xxx...x

The Not-so-Italian Spaghetti alla Carbonara

Why not so Italian ? Because I wanted it extra creamy and added cream. Ouch!



For 4 people

Ingredients

• 500 grs spaghetti
• 150 grs pancetta or lardons - I obviously used the smoked variety from our own pigs
• 2 cloves of garlic, unpeeled and crushed 
• 3 free range eggs
• 100 ml cream - maybe a bit more, because I really wanted it extra creamy
• 100 grs grana padano, grated at home - that is what I used, but it should actually be half and half Parmesan/Pecorino 
• Black pepper, freshly pestled-and-mortered

Method

• Bring a large pan of water to the boil. When it boils add salt  (you know as salty as the Mediterranean). Cook the spaghetti al dente. Stir sometimes to prevent it sticking, especially at the beginning.
• While the water was heating up, you should have been busy already softly, softly frying off the lardons in some oil, butter or lard in a frying pan. You added the 2 crushed garlic cloves too. They come back out at a later stage. The lardons should be golden and crispy, but I prefer when they are a bit softer. 
• Now take out the garlic. and add black pepper to lardons.
• Whisk the eggs somewhat together with the cream.
• When the pasta is cooked, lift it out with a slotted spoon and add to the frying pan that contains the bacon. It doesn't matter that the 'hanging' cooking water is added, it brings a little extra liquid to the 'sauce'.
• Heat through.
• Add the grated cheese to the egg mixture.
• Take the pasta off the heat and stir in the eggs, cheese and cream.
• Lifting the pasta and stirring till  the strands are covered and the sauce has thickened.
• You can still add some salt to this, but I believe with the lardons, cheese and Mediterranean sea water it should suffice.
• Serve immediately, sprinkled with more black pepper and grated cheese.

I'm sure there is no need for me to add to the many, many recipes for carbonara that are available on the internet. But maybe, when you're browsing through my blog and come across this one, it might remind you what a simple to make and deliciously tasty meal this is.

Patricia xxx...x

Penne Rigate with Fennel and Chicken

I love fennel me. Even more so when I can go to the garden and pick them myself. Okay, they are not the fattest bulbs, but when I chopped them up the wonderful mild anise aroma just filled me with joy.
(and I don't even like anise very much ).  Fennel is more subtle and sofisticated, anyway ;-) .

So here is a simple tasty meal I made. Did I tell you ? They're straight from the garden.

Ingredients

• olive oil
• 4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
• 3 fennel bulbs, roughly chopped
• 50 grs (or more) lardons (or pancetta if you're richer)
• zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 1 glass (25cl) chicken stock
• 150 to 200 grs cooked chicken pieces
• seasoning
• 2 spring onions, sliced
• fennel green, chopped
• 4oo grs penne rigate, cooked al dente
• morsels to taste of Roquefort or any other blue cheese you might fancy, but grated parmesan works too.

Preparation

• In a pan, fry off the lardons and set aside.
• Pour olive oil in same pan and sautee the garlic - without burning !
• Add the fennel and sautee some more, you can add a little of the stock to prevent it from burning.  Lid on.
• When fennel has reached the al dente stage, pour in the rest of the stock and the lemon juice.
• Add the chicken pieces and heat through thoroughly.
• Season with sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper.
• Stir in the freshly cooked penne, lemon zest, spring onions, fennel green and of course the lardons.
• Serve and sprinkle (or bomb) with morsels of Roquefort.

 I was contemplating to add cream but then thought  "Nah ! Don't be a pig !"

Thank you for visiting.
Patricia xxx...x

 

Surf and Turf Pasta

This is what I prepare when there's just not an awful lot of food in the house and when I've been struggling to untangle the christmas lights for the best part of the day.... and joy of joys, they then had the audacity to die on me when they where halfway up the tree.


Ingredients for 2

• 8 prawns, the ones I used where frozen/raw/unpeeledChorizo
•  salami or other paprika based smoked 1 cm cubed, 150 gr
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• greenish part of 2 leeks (it's what I had left in fridge), sliced in rings.
• 200 ml cream
• salt and black pepper
• olive oil

Linguine or tagliatelle work best, but I only had capellini


Preparation

• Heat some olive oil in the cooking vessel, throw in the prawns and sautee till they go pink.  Empty into a bowl (including the cooking juices)
• Fry off the chorizo and garlic with a little more oil. Scoop out and set aside.
• In the remainder of the oil, sautee the leeks.
• Meanwhile peel the prawns and slice them in about 1 cm tick slices.
• Add cooking juice of prawns to the leeks, add the chorizo and garlic and stir in the cream. Season with salt and black pepper.
• By this time you should have your pasta on the go.
• When cooked al dente, drain, stir in the sauce and add the prawns back in.
• Serve with a sprinkle of paprika powder and grated parmesan.

Santa's Little Helper

Keep decorating !
Patricia xxx...x