Good morning and welcome back one and all.
It’s official. I’m already sick of the March Madness thing. It has NOTHING to do with the fact that my bracket sucks hyena balls, I swear.
Besides, BASEBALL IS HERE! Glorious, glorious baseball. How I’ve missed you.
I’ve found that over the years my sports watching preferences have most definitely changed. It used to be the “Manly House of Sportsball” like 24/7 up in the right house. Shit man, now there are entire days that go by when I watch ZERO sports and don’t really fucking miss it.
My prime sports are still football, basically just NFL anymore and of course baseball. Also, thanks to you degenerates I’m an avid follower of the EPL and Aussie Rules footy!
I do the March Madness thing, obviously, until losing interest, which was the first goddamn weekend this year. I also watch the NBA and NHL playoffs but strictly based on match up. I don’t have to watch every game in every series. My ass is getting older and I like to partition my time out a little more judiciously.
You put a Cubs game on my TV though? Imma watch the shit out of that.
Plus it’s that whole new spring, new possibilities thing that I fall for like a dumbshit every fucking year.
I’m serendipitous like that!
For our menu inspiration today, we return once again to the Mock Draft at the end of last season, the one where folks were asked to list things they would like to see me cook on Sunday Gravy.
Today’s menu happened courtesy of our own LemonJello:
“Has Yeah Right done Osso Buco? Because I pick Osso Buco.”
To answer, “No, I have not.” And Yes, Let’s do just that.
We begin the day prior to the festivities with these 3 ingredients.
Why you ask?
Because those 3 ingredients; Italian parsley, lemon zest and garlic will make…
Gremolata!
Really? Nothing?
Alright Wiki. Get your ass to work.
“Gremolada (Italian: [ɡremoˈlaːta]) or gremolata (Italian: [ɡremoˈlaːda], Lombard: [ɡremuˈlaːda]) is a green sauce made with chopped parsley, lemon zest, and garlic. It is the standard accompaniment to the Milanese braised veal shank dish ossobuco alla milanese.”
Think chimichurri and you’ll get the idea. This puts a bit of brightness and that extra zip of lemon to help cut through the richness of the osso buco and folks? This is a rich motherfucker today.
Finely mince a bunch of the parsley, zest the lemon and put another fine mince on the garlic.
Combine.
Cover and refrigerate overnight. Hell, make it a few days in advance and let the flavors mingle.
Osso buco is usually prepared with veal shanks and since veal shanks ain’t exactly standard fare at your average risk-avoiding grocery store meat section, guess that means I’m off to my favorite local meat store.
You’ve seen this one before.
Most hilariously, two doors down is the pet hospital. I’ll let you sort that on your own.
As much as this place is awesome, alas they did not have veal shanks. What they did have was a whole wide selection of lamb cuts.
Lamb shanks it is.
Only slightly problematic because the very words “Osso” (bone) and “Buco” (hole or the hole in the shank) means having a marrow bone so marrow can be part of the dish.
Had a wee bit of a problem finding the bone holes in the lamb shanks.
A sentence that I’m not sure has ever previously been constructed in such a way .
We push on because it’s the deep, rich, slow roasted, meaty flavor we’re after today.
OSSO BUCO!
recipe courtesy of billyparisi.com
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 8-ounce veal (or lamb) shanks
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 peeled and large diced yellow onion
1 peeled and large diced carrot
2 peeled and large diced celery stalks
6-8 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons tomato paste
3 cups roughly chopped fresh tomatoes
2 cups dry red wine, Sangiovese or Barolo or a nice full bodied Italian red
4 cups of beef stock
2 bay leaves
1 bunch of Italian parsley
20 to 25 fresh thyme sprigs
Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
Yeah that sounds like a lot but for the osso buco itself? You’re basically just making a stew.
You can do this.
Away we go!
[The following recipe will be presented in pictorial form]
You got your mire poix in whole “uncloven” form so get with the chopping already.
For tomatoes I selected some lovely roma tomatoes. Because, well fuck. We’re cooking an Italian dish.
Aw the hell with it. Chop up all of the remaining vegetation.
Let’s get a look at our victim I mean our protein for the menu.
Yeah, I can fuck with that.
Flour them shanks up and give a good amount of seasoning with the salt and pepper.
Heat up some oil in a Dutch oven and sear these off.
About 5 minutes per side.
When the meat has been seared, add the onion, carrot and celery to the same pot.
Cook for 4-5 minutes then add in the tomato paste and the garlic. Stir to slightly brown the garlic and incorporate the tomato paste.
Here’s the wine I was able to find for use in the dish.
Couldn’t find a barrolo and not a huge fan of chianti so I subbed a lovely Tuscan red instead.
Pour in 2 cups of the wine and add the tomatoes and beef stock to the pot.
In goes the herbage next. The parsley and the fresh thyme.
Add the lamb back to the pot being sure to submerge the shanks as much as possible.
Slap a lid on this bad motherfucker and then into a 325 degree preheated oven she goes for about 2 and 1/2 hours.
After which time you should have something a little like this.
Let rest for a few minutes before serving.
While the serving options are many, including with pasta and risotto (which you are all now experts at) there was one specific option that I had in mind.
Goddamn right we are!
Polenta is pretty similar to making grits if you’ve had the opportunity to make grits. Hell, it basically IS fucking grits just a different variety of corn meal.
In fact, reflecting back, this entire meal is VERY similar to a dish I made back in 2017
Anyone remember the Grillades and Grits episode?
Check this shit out!
Chunks of meat slow roasted with a mire poix, tomatoes and wine and served over cheesy grits?
I’ll let the Italians and the French and the Cajuns sort that shit out. Diplomacy was never my strong suit but ain’t this the same damn thing?
I guess the lack of the “Bone Hole” is the difference.
Let’s make some fucking polenta already.
Polenta!
1 cup of polenta
32 ounces of chicken stock, veggie stock or even water
2-3 tablespoons of butter
1/3 – 1/2 cup of grated Parmigiano Reggiano
Salt to taste
While the stock is heating let’s address our cheese.
Hello Cheese.
Mind if I grate you up, Cheese?
You’re gonna need one of these, OK?
Don’t worry! I’m sure I gave some of you PTSD with my risotto episode but this isn’t THAT much stirring.
Kind of.
When the stock is at a low boil start slowly pouring in the polenta.
Now start whisking while you continue to gradually pour in the polenta.
Once all of the polenta has been added to the stock you need to constantly stir the polenta for the first 5 minutes. This shit is absolutely fucking crucial if you want to make sure your polenta doesn’t have lumps.
You don’t want lumpy polenta do you?! Only an asshole would want lumpy polenta and we’re much better than that!
Continue to whisk as the polenta thickens.
When the polenta has thickened to the point that a whisk just don’t cut it no more, switch to a heavy wooden spoon.
Scrape down the sides of the pot as you go.
After stirring for the first 5 minutes, lower the heat to”low” cover the pot and let simmer for 30 minutes.
You now only need to stir a few stirs every 5-6 minutes.
When the 30 minutes have elapsed turn off the heat and add in the butter and the cheese.
Mix thoroughly and season with salt if desired.
Of course you’re going to have a taste or three.
People? This is ridiculously fucking delicious. I’m already figuring out when I can make it again.
Let’s take a gander at what we’ve done here, alright?
Scoop of polenta, ladle of osso buco, top with the gremolata.
Oh shit. There it is.
How about a close-up?
Absolutely a fucking showstopper,
Drop dead goddamn amazing.
While the temptation to continue to just shovel this shit down your pie hole was most definitely there, I have to tell you, this fucker weighs heavy in the belly.
Woof!
Nice part about that?
Next day I cut the polenta that I had chilled overnight, into wedges. Then heated up the osso buco, fried up some potatoes then, BOOM!
Breakfast for dinner.
My god. Both elements of this dish are going in the rotation. So fucking good. I’m really hoping to actually find the veal shanks out there some day so I can try that but the lamb dish was KILLER. So rich, and deep and hits of the wine, tomato and garlic and served on the creamy, cheesy polenta?
I’d pay $37.99 for this!
The only bummer was I should have bought a second bottle of the Tuscan red wine because it was flawless served alongside. Alas, I really missed those 2 cups that went in the stockpot.
For next time. I’ll remember.
Thanks for the suggestion LemonJello!
Today’s positive holiday observances brought to you by A Bit of Good News: “March 30 is National Doctors Day, National Pencil Day, National Virtual Vacation Day, Keep Moving Forward Day, Pillow Fight Day and Take a Walk in the Park Day.”
Take a walk in the park with your doctor then get in a pillow fight?
Anyway.
Thanks for stopping by and following along. It’s always appreciated.
Until next week, folks.
Another great Sunday Gravy post from Yeah Right!
YR, Below you mentioned a vegetarian soup recipe. Have you ever posted that as a Sunday Gravy? Either way I would love to see the recipe if I could.
Interesting Side Story: One night I had a wonderful dinner with Yeah Right at the steak house high atop Binion’s Casino on Fremont Street in the heart of Las Vegas. He told me that until a few years ago he had never been interested in any kind of fine dining and that he met a woman who changed his dining perspective. To read all these wonderful Sunday Gravy posts you’d think he’s been doing this all his life.
In fact, I always assumed he was in the culinary business in some way, but I learned at that dinner that he was not. I also learned that several years prior he worked for my late father-in-law, a guy who I really admired. This was before he was my father-in-law so it didn’t overlap. Also, when I first met RTD it turns out we had a few common acquaintances. The greater Los Angeles area (including the Inland Empire) is a pretty big place with a vast amount of people, so this always amazed me.
That was a fantastic steak dinner with a killer view.
Yes it was!
If what I’m cooking tastes even half as good as it smells I’m going to be very happy.
This falls under the “There’s no way this can be bad” category.
Coming soon to a Sunday Gravy near you.
This is impressive and all, but I’m going to make guacamole tonight, something so easy it can be made table side at a chain restaurant. So yeah I’m a hero.
I would say my soup was about the same amount of work, but they’re never gonna simmer something for 40 minutes tableside.
Got a really good tableside Caesar salad once, with legit anchovies and all
I don’t want to alarm anyone who needs a trigger warning smh but teh #BFIB are on track to win 162 baseball matches this season. THE RIGHT WAY, obvs
is just MATHS nerrrrrddddds smgdh
Reverse Mormons in da house.
THIS NCAA TOURNAMENT I CALL IT GREG ODEN’S BONES BECAUSE IT IS TURNING OUT TO BE PURE CHALK.
women’s game could have all one seeds and it would STILL be far less chalky; these elite 8 games have been meastly today
Blender arrived and now I’m having a nice cup of soup and glass of wine for lunch. Mangia!
I could go for some soup.
Soup is great stuff, hydrating too
I made my weekly vegetarian soup earlier today.
Best stuff ever and my doctor loves me because I eat it 5 days a week.
I just had some udon noodles in anchovy broth.
Fuck that sounds delicious.
Nothing special, just some stuff (noodles, bouillon cube, seaweed snack) I was trying to get rid of.
Like 90% of the stuff I eat consists of futile attempts to clear out space in our fridge and freezers.
The homemade chicken soup my ex-wife made was worth 99.99% of the marital shitstorm outside of the chicken soup consumption.
Even if I did fish out the onions (migraine trigger).
Does anyone else here in the clubhouse keep sugar and/or flour in the fridge?
I keep my sugar in the backyard.
See that’s my reaction too (in fact it seems like keeping them in the fridge might be *worse* because of condensation concerns) but this is the kind of stuff the Dr. Mrs. will absolutely go to the mattresses over.
It IS lower humidity in the fridge, but you live in SoCal so don’t see that being a concern anyway. But yeah, don’t really see the point, especially for sugar which is a preservative unto itself.
Probably the weirdest thing I keep in the fridge is good quality dried pasta
The condensation concerns would be more that every time you take them out and use them, the new air that gets in contains moisture that will condense out when they go back in the fridge and the air cools down.
Yeah, even opening and closing the door maybe, although I’m sure you would notice if you were getting clumps or mold or whatever. Seems harmless enough though must take up a chunk of space that could hold dried out cheese you’ve forgotten about or fossilized tahini
Airtight container is good enough for me, but I also haven’t made anything with them in years
Whatever floats your boat.
Nope. I seal them both in a zip top bag and keep them in the kitchen cupboard.
They belong in the pantry or larder in the 19th century-everyone knows that.
Ain’t no room for that. Bring up how small the French fridge is and ask if she thinks that thr master chefs have room?
I am very interested to know why this is done.
Speaking of, thinking of getting a wine fridge, anything you recommend?
I was particularly proud to have the first known use of the “Bone Holes” tag.
I noticed that!
Electricity costs in California have gotten absurd (about 3.5x the cost in Chicago) so I’m gonna start running stuff off the giant battery I got and then recharging the battery with a protable solar panel. Solar for apartment dwellers!
It’s time for the CA legislature to start taking my green energy proposal more seriously.
Needs more coal
So you’re saying we should crush the puppies at high pressures and temps for a few millenia first?
kim mulkey drank from the wrong grail that was the size of a 7 eleven big gulp
local weather coverage of a tornado warning has muted this kim mulkey interview
even god is tired of her shit
“Our viewers would rather listen to the sound of their own homes blowing away than hear another word from this windbag.”
dook was given the chance to win in the most dook way possible (random charging call) and promptly airballs their 3 attempt
lmao
Happy Duke Schadenfräulein Day!
the only one we are getting this year
No! I trust in Kelvin Sampson.
Hail Gamblor.
Picked up a cool book about baseball from the library
It’s about how teams are using cool cameras and data analysis to help their players be better
Reading is ROCKINGGGG!
“rockingdog was eventually found guilty of ‘reading in the 2nd Degree’ and was sentenced to four years of singing The Star Bangled Banner at every WWE wrestling event in North America.”
-Paul Harvey, telling the rest of the story
Lea M. has left the chat
we saw coach k die and thought dook basketball went with him
and now…
From the garments district…
The great thing about blenders is that they are super easy to clean. Just put in a little dish soap and warm water and blend away!
Then rinse well. Nobody like soapy smoothies.
Of course!
Cilantro smoothie? Yuck
Telecast trying so hard to sell this blonde girl on Duke (surprise!) during what will be an eventual SC blowout. It’s so fucking obvious.
Not so fast…
Duke/South Carolina huh? The women’s game has really progressed because for the very first time I’m cheering for a very gender-specific meteor to fall.
/picking up a new prescription
Pharmacist: “If you have pain, spray it under your tongue and wait ten minutes.”
Me: “Okay.”
Pharmacist: “If the pain doesn’t subside, do it it again.”
Me: “Okay.”
Pharmacist: “If the pain doesn’t subside after the 2nd time, call 911.”
Me: “Okay.” [to self-“Fuuuuuck”]
WCS: Please don’t
This is the “Reset Year” for Man City, right? Sorry to see him go but The Broom needs to move on to Saudi Arabia or the NASL. I hope he picks the latter.
I always make osso buco with lamb shanks. I never eat veal, because the poor babby cows. Hypocrite! you shout! Well yes, I realize lambs are babbies too, but at least they get to move a little after they’re born.
Lambs are adorable but they are dumb as bricks, pretty sure celery is smarter
Just realized my immersion blender is in Chicago and I’m not gonna run a full batch of soup through a tiny single serving smoothie blender, so getting a full size blender on same day delivery from Amazon. What a world!
Might make margaritas later too now that I’ll have something that crushes ice
What recession!?
It’s not like I’m making an omelet or anything high end like that
I had two eggs for brunch today, livin’ large!
TIL that there were some hardcore suffragettes hanging out in England around 1912-14. They conducted a bombing and arson campaign for a few years-holy crap!.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffragette_bombing_and_arson_campaign
Might as well considering the shit they did to them in prison just for peaceful protesting. In for a penny, in for a pound
I should make soup today, I have a bunch of leeks for vichyssoise. I also wanted to drive up to Sonoma county and pick up my wine shipments, but might put that off since that’s a lot of driving and I could use a day nawt doing that. Might need to pop out and grab a cheap dry white for the soup though, but that’s just across the street.
I was thinking tonight would be a great night for the shortrib lasagna we picked up at Costco. We’ve got a Bordeaux that hopefully will go okay with it.
I already have some nice whites, but too good to go in soup. $15-$20 is about my limit for cooking booze. Pity we don’t have cheap table wine you can buy by volume here
As in like, “shopkeep, I need 200 mL of wine please”? That’s a thing? Where do they have that?
Think growlers but for wine
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/buying-bulk-wine-out-of-a-barrel-in-venice
That is a damn fine lasagna. Have to finish off my shame pizza tonight, then I’ll have the lasagna.
The shamiest shame pizza I’ve ever had was a kebab pizza in Malmo, Sweden
I ordered pizza at a fish and chips in Scotland, just for the drunken lolz. They tossed it in the fryer! It actually wasn’t horrible, but I had many pints of heavy in me, so who knows?
Found a funny:
*to the tune of Hallelujah
I heard there was a secret ooze
It turned four turtles into dudes
But you don’t really care for pizza, do ya?
They fought like this,
Two swords, a stick
A couple sai
Some nunchuck tricks
Those Ninja boys-a callin
Cowabunga
This morning I was singing (from my dog’s perspective, to the tune of Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated”, because she has to go for a walk and poop before she gets fed)
Why’d you have to go and make breakfast complicated?
See the way you’re feeding the cat first gets me frustrated
I want my food
Stupid beets. Stop freaking me out!
Don’t blame the veggies, only YOU can freak you out
Seconded. Beets are dirty, disgusting bastards, and should stay underground where they belong.
I will eat all your beets for you, as is only proper for someone of my Eastern European heritage I love beets
You can have them. I like all of the other root veggies, but beets just taste like mud and despair to me.
Sad face. I’ve gotten close to replicating my Babcia’s borscht (the key is dried mushrooms) and I think that soup is how I came to love beets
I could go for some mushroom soup, but ixnay on the eetsbay.
Great dinner party recipe!
technically spain used to be a part of rome ppl forget that
Everything used to be a part of Rome!
Except for America where we just use “Roman salutes” now apparently.
I have had this, with veal. Wifey has relatives in Milano and her aunt cooks this up righteous. Now that I have this tutorial… it’s added to the list here.