Osso Buco with creamy Polenta

Osso Buco is a Milanese classic, it mean "hole in the bone" and the best thing about bones is bone marrow. It's basically meat butter. The dish can be served over risotto or mashed potatoes or polenta. I like polenta. It's made with yellow or white corn meal, cheese, and butter. It has a texture of porridge and it hardens once cools. It can be fried, grilled, or baked the next day. Because it's a grain, it cooks quickly over stove. The water ratio to polenta is 4:1 (4 cup of water/stock to 1 cup of polenta) and with lots of cheese (if you can).

Osso Buco uses veal shanks to slow braise in wine and tomato sauce. Veal shank is a really tough cut of meat but turns super tender when braised for a long period of time in oven. The bonus point here is the bone marrow, once cooked it dissolved into the sauce and makes the sauce taste luscious.

Ingredient

1 cup Polenta (yellow or white)

4 cups of Boiling Water

3 Tsp Butter

Parmigiana cheese

Salt and Pepper

Some Butchers Twine

2 Large Veal Shanks

1 cup Dry Red Wine

1 Cup Beef Stock

½ large Yellow Onion, diced

1 Celery Rib, dice

1 Carrot, diced

2 cloves of Garlic, roughly chopped

1 small can of crushed tomatoes

2 Tsp Italian seasoning

Oven preheat to 325°F

Instruction

1. Place veal shank on a plate or a tray, use paper towel to remove any moistures on the surface of veal shanks. This step will speed up the browning process. Toss out dirty paper towel. Take some butchers twine to go around the meat twice, tie the ends up to hold meat and bone together. Season with salt. Set aside.
   

2. Turn heat up to med-high heat. Add enough oil to cover the bottom of a Dutch oven, was for a min for oil to heat up. Add veal shank and let in cook till surface is brown, flip to other side and let it brown. About 8 minutes per side.
   

3. Meanwhile, chop the vegetables and set aside.
   

4. Remove shanks from heat once both sides are browned. In the pot, add all vegetables, salt, stir, and cook till soften. About 6-7 minutes. Stir once a while.
   

5. Add a cup of dry red wine, stir mixture together and cook for 5 minutes.
   

6. Add crushed tomatoes and stock and let cook till boil. Reduce heat to simmer till liquid reduces a little. Taste for saltiness. Add veal shanks back to the sauce.
   

7. Cover the Dutch oven and carefully move it from stove to preheated oven. Set alarm for 1 hour and 20 minutes.
   

8. Once the alarm goes off, remove dutch oven from over, flip the veal shanks over, cover and put it back to the oven again for another hour and 20 minutes.
   

9. Ten minutes before the shanks are done, we can start preparing polenta. Boil 4 cups of water in a sauce pan.
   

10. Add 1 cup of polenta to boiling water slowly. Be careful with boiling water. Add salt. Stir with a whisk. Keep whisking till the mixture thickens. Cut butter into small cubes and add to polenta. Whisk them in. Grate as much as cheese you like (or not) while whisking. Once cheese melts, it's done. Taste for salt, add more if needed. Polenta should be creamy with porridge like texture.
    

11. Remove Dutch oven from oven. Taste the sauce for seasoning.
    

12. Add a ladle of polenta to a plate, place veal shank on top of polenta. Don't forget to remove butchers twine. Add black pepper on top and chopped parsley. Serve.