Father's Day Veal Osso Bucco with Gremolata

Sometimes it feels like one revolving holiday after another.  And Father's Day has somehow snuck upon us this coming weekend.  So all you daddy's girls cooking for your father this weekend, forget the barbecue and try my rich veal osso bucco with a refreshing gremolata!  Gremolata is usually nothing more than a topping of garlic, lemon, herbs and olive oil. Here, it is enlivened even more with the addition of lavender in the gremolata and to braise the veal.  The subtle floral aroma brightens the dish from a hearty winter dish to a special summer entrée.

My dad is a meat and rice kind of guy.  He loves his steak, pork belly and lamb.  He's usually pretty easy to please if you have any of those items on the plate.

Originally, we headed to Costco to pick up some steak to throw on the grill.  But that immediately changed when his eyes fell on these gorgeous veal shanks.

When I think of veal shanks, I immediately think osso  bucco.  Braised for several hours on the stove with tender, fall off the bone meat, it is an over-the-top dish that will make your dad (and diners!) salivate when you bring it to the dining table. Once you put it on the stove, just let it simmer on low and let it go and have a glass (or two) of wine while you wait for it to finish.

I love the citrusy-garlic of the gremolata which adds a bit of bite and wakens up all of your taste buds. The heat from the piping hot osso bucco releases all of the lovely ingredients in the gremolata.  Who needs to go to a restaurant when you have this osso bucco bubbling away at home? I served my osso bucco over some creamy mashed potatoes with some crispy, oven baked asparagus.  The reduced red wine broth the shanks cook in gets a deep, complex flavor from the long simmer on the stove and thickens slightly from the flour on the veal to create a tasty gravy to sop everything up.  With a bottle of red wine (or be a rebel and drink a crisp bottle of Sauvignon Blanc!), it is the perfect Father's Day meal.  I know my dad finished off his plate.  And even better, the dog got in on it too with the leftover shanks.

VEAL OSSO BUCCO WITH GREMOLATA

Serves 4-6

INGREDIENTS
1 tbsp canola oil
1/4 cup flour
6 veal shanks, bone-in
4 whole cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 tsp dried lavender
3 medium size vine grown tomatoes, roughly diced
2 stalks celery, roughly chopped
2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 cup beef broth
1 cup red wine (used Shiraz Cabernet)
1 bay leaf
Zest of 1 lemon
Salt and freshly ground mixed peppercorns to taste

For gremolata:
2 cloves garlic, minced finely
Zest of 2 lemons
1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped finely
1 tsp dried lavender, crushed
1/2 tsp Maldon or flaky sea salt

DIRECTIONS:
1.  In a large braising pan, warm oil over high heat.  In a medium bowl, mix together flour and season liberally with salt and pepper.  Add shanks into flour mixture and then shake off excess flour. Carefully place shanks into the braising pan and brown for 4-5 minutes on each side. Remove from pan and reserve on a plate.

2.  Lower heat to medium-high and add garlic, lavender, tomatoes, celery and carrots.  Stir together until light golden brown. Do not let the garlic burn! Add tomato paste, broth, wine and bay leaf and bring to a boil. Add shanks back into the broth mixture and lower heat to low.  Cover and simmer for at least 1 1/2 hours.  The meat should start pulling away from the bones.

3.  For gremolata, place all ingredients in a small bowl and mix together.  Reserve in refrigerator until ready to use.

4.  Add lemon zest to veal, season with salt and pepper if needed and continue braising for another 20-25 minutes.  Remove from heat. For a more home-style approach, serve it at the table in the braising pan.  Otherwise, serve the osso bucco in a large platter on top of mashed potatoes and top with broth/gravy and gremolata.

Spring Primavera Barley Risotto

Risotto. This Italian soul food dish is one of the easiest things to cook but one of the most difficult to achieve the proper texture. Most cook the risotto too dry, make the rice too mushy or too hard.


By definition, risotto is a rice cooked in a broth to a luscious, creamy consistency. The most common ingredients in risotto is broth, parmesan, butter and onion.  Within Italy, there are numerous variations of risotto: in Milan, risotto alla Milanese is made with beef stock, beef bone marrow, lard, cheese, and saffron similar to a Spanish paella; Piedmont, located in northern Italy by the mountainous Alps region, makes risotto al Barolo using red wine and may include sausage meat and/or Borlotti beans. Venetians cook one of my favorites, risotto al nero di seppia ("black risotto") made with cuttlefish cooked with their ink-sacs intact. Once you leave Italy, variations abound with most bases of the recipe remaining true to those four basic ingredients listed above.

Since I was out of arborio rice in the house, I decided to replace it with the barley and create a risotto using lighter, spring ingredients like sweet green zucchini, cherry tomatoes and plump crimini mushrooms. You can really use whatever you have on hand in your refrigerator and add chicken or shrimp if you desire. I wanted to keep the flavors really pure in this dish and celebrate the vegetables.


I started cooking with barley not for myself, but for my dog Tyler because I had read it was a very high fiber, high protein whole grain. The first few times I made it I didn't understand why he would eat everything except the barley. I was cooking it for 20 minutes which I thought sufficient. I later realized cooking it is similar to how I use the arborio rice for my risotto. The grains of barley need to be toasted on high for a minute to really release the nuttiness. Like arborio rice, cooking barley is a game in patience as it takes almost an hour to fully cook.

My finished barley risotto was perfect. Nutty with the natural chewiness of the barley, there was an earthiness from the mushroom and sweetness from the zucchini, tomatoes and fennel seeds.  I used less stock than usual for this risotto as the mushrooms released water when cooked. The addition of the butter at the end and parmesan added a rich, velvety creaminess to the risotto. I gobbled up every last bite and did not miss my usual proteins of chicken or shrimp.

A great tip I learned somewhere along the way in the early stages of my cooking in my early 20s was to use hot water in replacement of stock if not available.  I have used this tip several times in the past

15 years to no complaints.  I found out I didn't have any stock on hand and actually just used hot water in replacement for this recipe.

Bon appetito!!

SPRING PRIMAVERA BARLEY RISOTTO

Serves 2

INGREDIENTS
1 cup pearl barley, rinsed in cold water a few times to remove starch
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 white onion, diced
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp herbes de Provence
1 cup crisp white wine (I used a viognier, but any crisp white wine will work.)
2 1/2 cups warm vegetable stock or broth
5 whole crimini mushrooms, sliced including stems
1/2 green zucchini, diced
1/2 cup grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan-Reggiano
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter

DIRECTIONS
1. In a large stock pot over high, heat up oil and then add barley and toast for a minute until light golden brown.  Add onion, fennel and herbes de Provence. Sauté for another minute and using a wooden spoon, mix together.

2. Reduce heat to medium low. Add 1/2 cup of wine to pot and stir together, then let reduce until liquid is pretty much gone before adding the next 1/2 cup. Repeat process with stock, pouring 1/2 cup into the pot every time.  Stir occasionally to make sure it does not stick to the bottom of the pot. The whole cooking time for the barley should take between 40-50 minutes total.

3.  Before you add the last cup of stock, add mushrooms, zucchini and tomatoes.  If you add it too early, the vegetables will become too mushy and lose its beautiful colors. Before you add the last 1/2 cup of stock, add Parmesan, salt and pepper to taste. Stir together.

4.  Add the butter to finish when you notice the stock is almost cooked through.  You do not want it dry.  It should be slightly liquidy and fall off your wooden spoon easily with only a slight resistance. The butter will add the rich, creamy texture you are looking for.

5.  Serve immediately and top with more Parmesan. Drink the rest of that white wine you used for the risotto to the last drop.