Dinner At Sheila's

Ossobuco or osso buco is Italian for “bone with a hole” referring to the marrow hole in the center of the cross-cut veal shank. 

This dish hails from Milan, and is said to have originated in the late 19th century.  It may have been a “farmhouse dish” or on the menu of a neighborhood osteria (restaurant).

The veal shank is relatively inexpensive, cut from the top of the thigh so there is a higher proportion of meat to bone, and then sectioned into 3 cm thick slices.

It is a tough, but flavorful piece of meat.  By browning the veal and then braising in a broth of white wine, tomatoes and vegetables for several hours the meat becomes fall off the bone tender.

The braising liquid becomes a flavorful sauce that is delicious served with your choice of accompaniment…risotto, mashed potatoes, polenta, or pasta.

This tomato based recipe is the more modern version of Osso Bucco.  The original version does not include tomatoes, and is flavored with cinnamon, bay leaf, and gremolata.  This recipe does, however, include the gremolata.                                    

Having discovered a package of veal shanks in the freezer that I’ve ignored the last several months due to my summer grilling frenzy I suddenly felt hungry for a pot of something cooked low and slow. Osso Bucco seemed as good a choice as any.

After a season of BBQ, grilling, salads, slaw, and fresh fruits and veggies from the farmer’s markets I found out that even in the summer good old fashioned comfort food can be quite comforting!

Osso Bucco  (from the cookbook, Good Old Food, by Irene Chalmers)

(serves 6 )

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3 pounds veal shank

4 tablespoons butter

1 large onion, thinly sliced

1 large carrot, finely chopped

1 stalk celery, finely chopped

1 bay leaf

15-ounce can whole tomatoes, coarsely chopped, juice reserved

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 cup dry white wine

1/2 cup finely chopped parsley

Grated rind of 1 lemon

Combine the flour with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a paper bag.  Pat the veal pieces dry with paper towels, put them in a bag and shake until they are coated with the seasoned flour.  Shake off any excess.

Heat the butter in a large casserole over high heat, add the veal and cook, turning, until browned on all sides.  Remove the meat from the pan.

Add the onion, carrot, celery and bay leaf to the pan and cook over moderate heat until the onions are softened and translucent.  Add the tomatoes with their juice, the tomato paste and the wine and bring the mixture to the boil.  Reduce the heat to low and return the meat to the pan.

Put a circle of wax paper directly onto the surface of the stew.  Cover the casserole and cook for 2 hours or until the meat is very tender.

For the gremolata: combine the parsley and the lemon rind in a small bowl.  When the veal is cooked, stir the parsley-lemon mixture into the stew and simmer for another 1 minute.  Using a slotted spoon, transfer the veal to a heated serving platter.  Serve the sauce over the meat and serve at once.

The heat wave crossing the country didn’t stop my sister and her friend who has been up north visiting from Florida from coming for a visit to us this weekend.  Actually we’ve all been friends since elementary school days, so it was really great getting to spend some time together.

With the weather so unbearable this was not going to be a dinner on the patio as much as I love alfresco dining.  In fact , the only time spent on the patio this last week has been to water my plants early in the day when it’s been a mere 90 degrees at 7:30 a.m. before it’s percolated to 100 degrees and more which has to be a record for our days in Maryland.  Oh well, this too shall pass, and the sooner the better.

We love having guests and were excited to enjoy these wonderful Watermelon Mojitos  before a great dinner in the air- conditioned comfort of our home.  Especially since in this extreme heat, drinking alcohol is frowned upon because it adds to dehydration.  So, no problem… bring on the Mojitos, and crank up the AC!

 Thankfully, the heat had not deterred my husband’s willingness to man the grill, so I prepared  Greek chicken which he grilled to perfection!

After having split two chickens in half and removed the backbone, I marinated them overnight in a mixture of fresh lemon juice, olive oil, smashed fresh garlic cloves, dried oregano, fresh Greek oregano, and a generous amount of kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.  My husband placed them on the hot grill, carefully basted them with the marinade,  turning them until  done and golden as in the photo above.  ( For a 4 pound chicken it took about 45-50 minutes.)

Before removing the chicken I brushed the lemon halves with the marinade and placed them on the grill as well.  Squeeze the grilled lemons over the chicken and serve.

Ina Garten’s Greek Panzanella Salad was the perfect accompaniment to this chicken.  I have served this three times this summer for guests and everyone loves it!  The bread is divine, and that’s the first thing everyone comments on…how delicious that bread is!  I’ve been using a wonderful sour dough to make the large croutons instead of the french bread.  The texture is amazing even after it’s soaked up all that wonderful vinaigrette.

Now to get back to the featured item of this blog…the Watermelon Mojitos!  This refreshing cocktail was a big hit.  It, too, comes from the Barefoot Contessa , Ina Garten, and I’ve been looking for an excuse to make them all summer. So, if not on one of the hottest days of the summer, with good food and good friends, when?

We sipped on these Mojitos while nibbling on an appetizer of mini toasts with a smoked trout spread, (a future post) and some fresh sugar snaps and middle eastern flatbread served with some tzatziki for dipping.

With plenty of summer days remaining I suggest you try this delicious cocktail before too long.  In air conditioned comfort, if need be.

Watermelon Mojitos     (Barefoot Contessa How Easy Is That? by Ina Garten)

Makes 6 drinks

Most cocktail recipes are written  to make one drink at a time, but who has time for that when you’re having a party?  In the summer, when the watermelon is sweet, this recipe makes a big pitcher of mojitos-it’s a refreshing drink with crushed mint and freshly squeezed lime juice.

30 large fresh mint leaves, coarsely torn by hand

12 ounces light rum, such as Bacardi

1/2 cup simple syrup

6 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice (3 limes)

Sprigs of mint and spears of watermelon, for serving

Use a mortar and pestle to mash the mint leaves.  Remove and discard the rind and seeds of the watermelon.  Put the fruit into a food processor fitted with the steel blade and puree.  Put the mashed mint into a large pitcher with 2 cups of pureed watermelon, the rum, simple syrup, and lime juice and stir to combine.  Pour the mixture into a pitcher for serving.

Place ice cubes in 6 glasses and pour the mojito mixture into the glasses.  Garnish with sprigs of fresh mint and spears of watermelon.  Serve ice cold.

To make simple syrup, put 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water in a small pan and simmer until the sugar dissolves. Chill.

Every so often I love to look at Ruth Reichl’s Blog.  She is an acclaimed author, food writer, and past restaurant critic for The New York Times, and was both the food editor and restaurant critic for the Los Angeles Times.  She was the editor of Gourmet Magazine for 10 years until its closing in 2009.

Her list of accomplishments in the food world seems endless.  She was a  part of the culinary revolution that took place in Berkeley, California in the 1970’s.

She infuses her writing with not only her culinary knowledge, but with the wisdom of her experiences and a delightful sense of humor.

This recipe for Apricot Pie was recently posted on her blog.  On my last visit to one of our local farmer’s markets I purchased these beautiful apricots with this recipe in mind.

She refers to this as the World’s Easiest Pie, and she says…This is not only the fastest pie I know how to put together( it’s even faster if you use a frozen pie shell), it is also the most satisfying.  Served with a little whipped cream, or some vanilla ice cream, it is summer on a plate.  The recipe is from Comfort Me With Apples.

Apricot Pie

1 recipe pie dough (for a single crust pie)

2 pounds apricots

1 stick butter, melted

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup flour

fresh nutmeg

Roll out the pie dough, fit it into a 9 inch pie pan, crimp the edges and put it into the freezer for 15 minutes while you preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Break the apricots apart with your fingers; do not peel them, but remove the pits.

Melt the butter.  Stir in the sugar (brown sugar is fine), then the flour.  Grate in a bit of nutmeg.

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Put the apricots in the unbaked shell.  Cover them with the sugar mixture and put the pie on the bottom rack of your oven.   After 10 minutes turn the heat down to 375 degrees and bake for 35 or 40 minutes more, until the top is crusty and golden.  Transfer to a cake rack and cool before serving.

Ruth was right…this is the World’s Easiest Pie!  If you love apricots, you will love this pie.

I was amazed at how good the top crust was with its buttery, sugary crunchiness, which played well against the sweet yet tartness of the  apricots. 

Serve it with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.  Thanks, Ruth!

Romesco Sauce originates from Catalonia, Spain and is typically made from almonds, pine nuts, and/or hazelnuts, garlic, olive oil, and nyora peppers, a smaller, sweet, dried variety of red bell pepper.

Other common  ingredients can include roasted tomatoes, red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar, and onion.  Leaves of fennel, mint, or parsley can also be added.

It is most often served with seafood, but can be served with an array of other foods including vegetables, poultry, and beef.  It is delicious spread on a toasted or grilled baguette as well.

I made a quick version of this sauce to serve with grilled shrimp and steak the other evening for dinner.  I had purchased a small amount of tri-tip and  some shrimp from Trader Joe’s so it was surf and turf for dinner, with some Romesco Sauce on the side.

There is plenty of room for flexibility in making this sauce.  You can substitute roasted red pepper for the nyora pepper, any one or combination of the nuts mentioned above, your choice of vinegar and herbs, creating a sauce that suits your taste and the contents of your pantry at the moment.

This versatile sauce will  keep well  in the refrigerator and the flavor will only improve. 

Romesco Sauce (adapted from Mark Bittman’s Tri-Tip: A Steak Worth the Hunt)

This ultra-thick, nicely marbled, strongly flavored steak is perfect for roasting, broiling, grilling or a combinbation of stove-top and oven cooking.  It’s wonderfully suited to this practically instant version of romesco, the Catalan sauce more commonly used with fish. (If you can’t find tri-tip, use any thick cut of sirloin, or even steaks from the not -too -flavorful  fillet, which will be helped immeasurably by the romesco.)

The key to this odd preparation-you make the steak and sauce at the same time, in the same pan-is getting the skillet really hot.  Use a cast iron one if you have it.  If not just use a good quality pan that can take the heat.

Ingredients

1 pound (26-30 per pound) raw shrimp, peeled, deveined and tail on

1 medium red pepper (or long sweet red pepper)

9-12  grape tomatoes

3 cloves fresh garlic

1/2 - 3/4 cup almonds (roasted and salted)

1 jalapeno, optional

1/4 cup red wine vinegar, or 1/4 cup red wine vinegar and sherry wine vinegar combined

2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley

2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, and extra for brushing on shrimp

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Roast a medium red bell or long sweet red pepper directly over a gas flame or uncder a preheated broiler until blackened all over.  Transfer to a plate and let cool.

Peel.  Discard the seeds and stem, and coarsely chop the pepper.

Heat the skillet until it is very hot.  Sear the steak and sauce ingredients-almonds, tomatoes, fresh garlic, and. if you like, jalapeno pepper- until charred.

Transfer the steak to a 500 degree oven to finish cooking.  I chose to finish it off on a very hot grill since I was grilling the shrimp as well. Cook to medium rare.

In a food processor or blender, combine the tomato, garlic. peppers, almonds, vinegar,   parsley, salt and pepper.  With the machine on, slowly blend in the olive oil. 

Rinse the shrimp and pat dry.  Thread onto four metal skewers(10 to 14 inches).  Brush with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Place shrimp on barbeque grill over a solid bed of medium-hot coals or medium heat on a gas grill (you can hold your hand at grill level only 3-4 seconds); close lid on gas grill.  Cook shrimp, turning once, until opaque but still moist-looking in center of thickest part (cut to test), 3 to 6 minutes total.

Remove steak from the grill and slice it in thick slices against the grain.

Remove shrimp, and place on plate with sliced steak.  Serve with Romesco Sauce.