Around My French Table (53 page)

T
HE ITALIANS GOT TO NAME THIS DISH,
but that doesn't mean the French don't make it regularly and make it their own.
Osso buco,
meaning "bone with a hole," is the heart of this dish and also gives it its name. Cut crosswise from a veal shank, thick slices of osso buco are round, with meaty nuggets surrounding the central hole, which is filled with marrow—and treasured.

A gently braised dish, osso buco is often finished at the last minute with a shower of gremolata, traditionally a mix of garlic, lemon zest, and parsley. In this rendition, a recipe given to me by the late French artist Arman, the veal, simmered in an orange and tomato sauce, is served with rice beneath and nothing above. However, taking artistic license (something I'm certain Arman would have granted me), I top the veal with a gremolata that mimics the dish's seasonings—orange zest, garlic, and minced basil (see Bonne Idée). Since you'll only be using the zest, think about making an Orange and Olive Salad (
[>]
) with the fruit.

A word on the veal: Because the meat around the bone doesn't form a solid piece—the nuggets, encircled by connective tissue, press against one another like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle—it's best to tie kitchen twine around the circumference of each slice to hold it neatly in place during cooking. If you buy your veal shanks from a butcher, the odds are he'll tie the rounds without your even having to ask.

If you'd like to serve 6, add 2 more pieces of osso buco without making any other adjustments to the recipe—there'll be enough of the delicious sauce to go around.

Remove the zest from the oranges with a vegetable peeler, taking care not to get any of the cottony white pith. Pour the water into a saucepan, drop in the zest, bring to a boil, and boil for 5 minutes. Lower the heat so that the water just simmers and cook for another 5 minutes. Set aside.

Put a Dutch oven or a very large oven-going skillet with a lid over medium heat and pour in 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Add the onions, garlic, and herbs and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes, just to soften. Using scissors, reach into the can of tomatoes and snip the tomatoes into pieces. Add the fresh and canned tomatoes, liquid included, the bouillon, and 2 tablespoons of the water in which the zest cooked—hold on to the rest of the liquid; you'll need it later. Bring the sauce to a boil, season with salt and pepper, reduce the heat, and let it simmer gently while you brown the veal.

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Set a large heavy-bottomed skillet over medium-high heat and pour in 3 tablespoons of the olive oil. Pat the veal dry and season sparingly with pepper. Working in batches if necessary, slip the pieces into the pan and brown them lightly on both sides. (If you're working in batches, you'll probably have to add more oil.) As each piece of meat is browned, lift it out of the skillet with a slotted spatula (let the fat drip back into the pan) and lower it into the simmering sauce.

Pour off the fat in the skillet and pour in the remainder of the liquid in which the zest cooked—reserve the zest. Turn the heat up and cook for a minute, stirring to get up whatever little bits of meat have stuck to the pan, then pour the pan juices into the Dutch oven. Add 8 to 10 strips of the zest to the pot (you can save the rest for pilaf and gremolata; see the Bonne Idées) and, using a wooden spoon or spatula, mix everything together as best you can—you won't be mixing as much as gently sloshing, but that's fine. Scatter the carrots over the veal.

Cut a circle of parchment paper or two circles of wax paper (it's good to have a double layer) just large enough to fit inside the Dutch oven and lay the paper on top of the osso buco. Simmer for 5 minutes more, then settle the lid on the pot and slide it into the oven.

Braise the osso buco undisturbed for 2 hours, at which point the meat should be fork-tender. Carefully lift off the pot's lid and the parchment paper and, with a large spoon, skim as much fat from the surface of the sauce as possible before serving.

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

SERVING
Osso buco and rice is both perfect and traditional. In Italy, the dish would be paired with a saffron risotto, but Arman's choice was rice cooked with orange zest, and it's my favorite accompaniment as well (see Another Bonne Idée,
[>]
). If you'd like, prepare an orange-basil gremolata (see Bonne Idée) to sprinkle over the osso buco or to bring to the table for individual sprinkling.

STORING
Like most braised dishes, osso buco is a good keeper. You can make the dish up to 2 days ahead, chill it, and then reheat it gently on top of the stove or in a 325-degree-F oven. It can also be frozen: cool the dish (or the leftovers), pack airtight, and freeze for up to 2 months.

BONNE IDÉE
Orange-Basil Gremolata.
While you can certainly make this from fresh zest, it's foolish not to use the zest you blanched for the sauce. Pat the zest dry and finely chop enough of it to measure about ¼ cup. Toss the zest with 1 garlic clove, split, germ removed, and minced, 3 tablespoons minced fresh basil, salt (fleur de sel would be nice), and freshly ground pepper. You can make this about an hour or so before serving time, but keep it tightly covered with plastic wrap so that it stays moist.

ANOTHER BONNE IDÉE
Orange (or Lemon) Rice Pilaf.
Because there's a lot of orange zest left over from the veal, I usually use it to make this pilaf, but you can use lemon zest or a mix of orange and lemon zest. Set a medium saucepan over low heat and pour in 2 tablespoons olive oil. When it's warm, stir in 1 onion, finely chopped, and about 3 tablespoons finely chopped orange zest (if you use the zest you cooked for the osso buco's sauce, just pat it dry). Season with salt and freshly ground pepper and cook gently, stirring occasionally, for about 3 minutes, or until the onion is soft and translucent. Increase the heat to medium, add 1 cup basmati or other long-grain white rice, and stir it around until it is coated with oil, about 1 minute. Pour in 2 cups chicken broth and stir. Bring the broth to a boil, add a little more salt and pepper if you think it's needed, and stir, then reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook until the rice has absorbed all the liquid. (White basmati rice usually needs about 11 minutes, but rice varies, so check the package and, most important, the pan.) Remove from the heat, let sit for 2 minutes, and then fluff the rice with a fork. If you'd like, you can stir a little chopped fresh basil into the rice.

L
IKE US, THE FRENCH LOVE TO PAIR
pork tenderloin with fruits (dried and fresh), with sauces (sweet and sticky), and with herbs and spices (mild and hot). But here's a recipe that strikes me as being a little different. It's got some spice—cardamom—and it's got fruit, but the fruit is orange, which gives the dish a light, refreshing feel. Like most pork tenderloin recipes, this one is quick enough to make on a busy weekday.

Peel 2 of the oranges all the way down to the flesh, then cut between the membranes to release the segments. Cut the segments crosswise in half. Remove the zest from the other 2 oranges with a zester or vegetable peeler, being careful to avoid the white cottony pith if using a peeler; if you removed the zest with a peeler, slice the strips into long thin strands. Cut the zest into pieces 1 to 2 inches long. Squeeze the juice from the 2 zested oranges.

Cut a large tenderloin into 8 pieces or smaller ones into 4 pieces each. Try to get the thickness of the pieces as even as possible, so they will all cook in the same amount of time. Pat the slices dry between paper towels.

Put a large skillet over medium-high heat and add the butter and oil. When the mixture is hot, add the pork slices, without crowding, and brown them for 2 to 3 minutes on each side; season with salt and pepper when you turn the pieces over. (If putting all the pork in the pan would crowd it, brown the pieces in 2 batches, adding more butter and oil if necessary, then return all the pork to the pan.) Add the orange zest, juice, onion, and cardamom, season everything with salt and pepper, and give the pan a stir. When the sauce produces one little bubble, reduce the heat to low and cover the pan. Cook the pork at the gentlest simmer for 10 minutes.

Add the orange segments, cover, and continue to simmer for 3 minutes more, or until the pork is tender and cooked through.

Remove the lid, and if you think the sauce needs to be cooked down a bit, transfer the pork and orange segments to a warm serving platter and boil the sauce until it reaches the consistency you want. Taste for salt and pepper and serve immediately.

MAKES 6 SERVINGS

SERVING
The pork and oranges are good with potatoes or rice, but they're particularly nice paired with Broth-Braised Potatoes and Fennel (
[>]
) or Celery Root Puree (
[>]
).

STORING
This dish is best served as soon as it's made—because there isn't much sauce, it doesn't reheat very well. But any leftover pork can be used for sandwiches or salads.

M
ARIE NAËL, A PARIS RESIDENT
and an energetic blogger, is a rare breed of professional chef—one who cooks for many during the day and returns home to cook for two every night. We met at a photography atelier and have exchanged culinary notes ever since. I love how imaginative she is and how willing she is to tweak classics, jump cuisinary borders, and play around in the kitchen. You can get a sense of her style in this recipe, which was originally made with a hunk of wild boar she had in the freezer. Lacking a tucked-away morsel of boar, I made it with a much tamer pork butt and had the feeling that no matter what cut I'd used, I would have ended up with a winning dish. It's hard to go wrong with a sauce based on coconut milk, cardamom, coriander, curry, and fresh lemongrass. In fact, it's so hard to go wrong that I've even made the recipe with chicken instead of pork.

In Marie's recipe, an assortment of root vegetables is cooked separately and added to the stew at the last minute. When I've had time to do that, I've been delighted; when I haven't, I've added frozen peas to the pot at the last minute or just left the braise pristine.