Osso Buco & Vermouth, Artichoke, Parmesan Dumplings w/ Risotto Milanese

Served with Basil Gremolata and Crispy Garlic Cavolo Nero

I love dishes that have a ‘cherry-on-the-top’. Osso buco is a prime example of this with the marrowbone jewel you get from inside the veal shin bone. It’s an absolute treat, especially when it is cooked just right that the marrowbone slides out of the bone in one gelatinous piece. However, don’t dismay if you accidentally slow cook it for too long and check your pot to find the marrowbone has disappeared, because this just means your stock will be twice as nice! You really cannot lose either way. Although I know which outcome I prefer!

I had wanted to try this dish for many years after hearing Andy was cooking it on the TV show, Weeds (2005–2012), which would have been about 2009/10. I wouldn’t actually get to try it for about another decade after learning about it. Being from Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, we don’t have the most diverse range of cuisines here, although horizons are expanding a bit now. (Pho being another dish I found hard to come by). I used to ask at butchers and check meat counters, but couldn’t get my hands on any for years. Fenwick’s used to say they stocked it but it was always not in stock/sold out whenever I called in. (Fresh salsify another ingredient hard to come by).

It wasn’t until mine and my partner’s (Griff) second date (the most important of the dates imo) that I would get to try osso buco. In fact, it was this dish and my partner’s favourite dish/fish, seabass, that decided the venue, Carluccio’s. It was fate! I’d waited a decade to try this dish, it felt almost like a sign that I’d waited a similar length of time to meet, Griff. 🤮🤣

Soppiness swiftly aside—The dish really did help elevate the date to “the next level”! This is what good food’s all about! It can make (or break) a mood—especially mine haha, it can make me excitable or grumpy like a child—I don’t think we ever grow out of the way food makes us feel from when we are little, especially [our] comfort food (which is obviously different for different cultures and people across the globe).

I enjoy culturally appropriating comfort foods of different countries; Greece’s moussaka, Japan’s ramen, Thailand’s pho and rendang, Mexico’s chilaquiles, Israel‘s matzo ball soup, Poland’s pierogi, Philippines kare-kare, Hungary’s goulash, and Italy’s osso buco (among many, many others). These dishes make me equally warm and fuzzy as mince and dumplings does—the comfort food of the North East of England. Despite Fish ‘n’ Chips being reported as the comfort food of the UK, it doesn’t qualify as a proper comfort food in my book. Don’t get me wrong, I love Fish ‘n’ Chips, but a comfort food is something your nana (grandparent) and/or mam or dad (parents) made you when you were young to comfort you and make you feel better when you were unwell. Hence, a comfort food generally should be/is healthy and hearty—or, salubrious, as my grandad used to call it. Fish ‘n’ Chips is far from healthy. By similar denotation the beef burger fails to make the grade of comfort food, regardless of ranking as one of my most reached for and top 5 foods of all time. Sorry beef burger 🍔🙃!

Anyways, make sure to subscribe & follow for our renditions of comfort foods culturally appropriated and remixed, probably by adding dumplings in anything we can! 🥟😅

---

Osso buco w/ Vermouth, Artichoke, Parmesan Dumplings

(aka, TCT Dumplings)

We are Griff and Dumpling (pet names for each other) so, as with most our dishes, quantities are for two people. I also prefer intuitive cooking and aim to build that intuition in our readers. There are generally no hard and fast rules with cooking (unlike baking), you can increase or decrease certain levels to personal taste—and I encourage this, as food is a very personal thing. You may like more or less herbs, a conservative or generous amount of cheese, or stodgier dumplings, it’s entirely up to you. I will try my best to include tips/enough info for you to create different remixes to suit your taste.

• Beef and veg stock, homemade optional, but best!

  If you use stock cubes, you can do this step later. If you choose to make your own stock, do this as a preliminary step 2-hours prior to starting. I choose a hybrid and use a beef stock cube + 1 small fennel (cup in half), 1 large carrot (scrubbed, ended, and quartered), 2 celery stalks, garlic bulb cut in half, and herbs de Provence (season, season, season!). Slow cook in over for 1.5-3 hrs (no hard and fast rule, just unlock all that veggie goodness into your stock!)

  

• 2 osso buco cuts of veal, dusted in season plain flour—then sealed in a frying pan with rapeseed oil

  

• Mirepoix, or rather a Pinçage, using a 1:2:1 ratio mixture of carrot, onion/shallot, celery, and then tomato paste—cooking until the tom paste turns brown and unlocks an umami taste. You’ll intuitively know when a good mirepoix or pinçage is done.. it just starts to look like it has become one and not just a bunch of separate ingredients. To make it you just dice each of the three veggies into small cubes and fry in olive oil (I use garlic olive oil), then add tomato paste.

  Obviously, season!

  

  Tip: Wash/scrub your veggies, no need to peel the carrot. Just chop the carrot in half. Then taking one half, cut one side off the carrot lengthways to create a flat surface. Turn the carrot onto that surface so that it is stable on the cutting board. Then cut another side off. Continue until you have a squared carrot without any peel. This way you can then half it then half again to create large matchsticks, which can be cubed easily.

  

• Fresh rosemary and thyme, added to the mirepoix from the start.

• 1 or 2 bay leaves, added to the mirepoix from the start.

  

• Can of tomatoes, added to mirepoix once ready

  Tip: Peeled plum tomatoes are generally better than cans of chopped tomatoes, as the manufacturers use the not so great toms for the cans of chopped!

Method

for the osso buco

• Once the stock and mirepoix is ready, add the tinned tomatoes and stock.

• Then add the osso buco cuts.

• Pop the lid on and pop in the oven for 2-3 hours.

• The dumplings will be added towards the last half hour.

for the dumplings

• 3 tablespoons of TCT mix, cold/room temperature,

  Alternatively, if you don’t have TCT;

  • 1-2 tablespoons of vermouth, in place of 1-2tbs water

  • 1 artichoke heart, minced

  • 1 tablespoon of parmesan

  • pinch of cloves

• 6 tablespoons self-raising flour

• 3 tablespoons suet

• Plain flour, seasoned (for dusting)

• 4-6 tablespoons of water

I did mini dumplings, so basically I just cut the normal dumpling size into half and got double the yield. Here I give the way to do normal dumplings, you can choose what size you want to do them.

There’s a general rule of thumb, for 1 dumpling you want 2 heaped tablespoons of self-raising flour and 1 heaped tablespoon of suet. To make them TCT flavoured dumplings, I just add one tablespoon of cold/room temperature TCT mix.

So the above quantities make 6 mini dumplings, or 3 big dumplings. For a meal like mince and dumplings that demands larger dumplings, since the dumplings are the star of the show in that dish, I’d be doubling that quantity for two people. You can intuit what quantities that would require for however many people you want to cook them for.

Add the dumplings 30-40mins before end, with the lid on, to let them rise. Remove the lid for the second half of that time (once they have risen) for a further 15-20mins to crisp up the tops of the dumplings.

Before…

After…

Risotto Milanese

• 150g risotto rice

• 1 medium white onion (or 2-3 shallots)

• 1 cup white wine

• generous crumble of saffron (to taste, use your intuition)

• 25g parmesan cheese (or to taste)

• seasoning

Risotto’s apparently a tricky one (the “death dish” on many competitive cooking programmes). I’ve somehow always seemed to knock up a decent risotto. I generally have good intuition when cooking, which I think is key to a successful risotto!

There are soooo many different recipes out there that call for varying quantities. I also think that no two risottos are the same! I have made one following a recipe and then attempted following the same recipe again, but slightly overcooked at the initial wine reduction step and ended up not needing half of the chicken stock. You MUST be attentive!

My three tricks to good risotto:

1. If you can, heat the wine (or have it at room temperature). Add/crumble the saffron to the wine (the alcohol will also help dissolve the saffron into the liquid). Reduce the wine until it has fully evaporated before starting to add stock

2. Add stock one ladle at a time, wait until the previous liquid has been absorbed before adding the next!

3. TASTE! TASTE! TASTE! (before adding the next ladle of liquid, taste the risotto. If it is al dente, stop! Even if you have stock liquid remaining, sod the recipe, the risotto is ready!

   

Crispy Garlic Cavolo Nero

• 1 bunch/bag (approx. 250g) Cavolo Nero

• 2-3 cloves garlic

• Garlic olive oil

Fry Cavolo Nero and garlic until crispy, flicking about regularly to avoid burning!

DO NOT burn the garlic, otherwise it will be bitter! Add the garlic slightly later than the Cavolo Nero.

Basil Gremolata

• Fresh parsley (finely chopped)

• Lemon zest (grated)

• Garlic (finely chopped)

• Basil (finely chopped)

• Olive oil

Finely chop all ingredients into each other to blend and add a drop of olive oil to bind.

Service! (Bringing it all together)

---

Note I: I have followed/tried umpteen osso buco recipes in search of my trademark. On my culinary travel I have found an unofficial general rule of thumb: if using chicken stock, use red wine, and vice versa; if using beef stock, use white wine, and vice versa. The traditional recipe calls for white wine, which is also my preference, since veal is a delicate rose/pink meat, meaning it can work both ways, but pops more when treated more like a white meat dish that a mature red meat dish like beef casserole.

Note II: Don’t overcook otherwise you’ll lose the marrowbone jewel from the centre of the bone, as it will liquify and join the stock. Fair enough, your stock will be even nicer, but you miss out on the ‘cherry on top of the cake’ of osso buco.

This happened to me the first time I did it using the slow cooker method, thinking I could just keep it on low and cook it indefinitely, like a chilli. Sadly not. I was lucky enough to catch it in time to save the marrowbone on the second cut, which went to partner (Griff), as I always give the best bits to whomever I am cooking for—I generally get the bigger portion, being a dumpling-shaped man/man-size dumpling 🥟 , but the best bits always go to my guests! That’s what cooking is all about—[sharing/gifting/showing] the love!

Note III: Many of the steps/methods are optional and have alternative ways of doing things. This method in its entirety is an all day affair, but a bloody enjoyable one! You can easily just do the core osso buco and serve it with mash and green beans or broccoli for a quicker version. The osso buco can also be done in slow cooker or on the hob in the same skillet (if it is large enough and has a lid—I just don’t have one on hand, otherwise this is probably the easiest and uses less kitchenware). The dumplings are just pure luxury and gluttony haha, they are not tradition, and would/will probably be frowned upon by most Italian families, but we LOVE ‘em!

They can also be substituted with passatelli.

---

Leftovers

It is better to make more than not enough, lets be honest. If you’ve followed our recipe then you more than likely have leftovers.

This is what we have done with ours.

Half went to one meal, the other to another.

The excess dumplings and stock mix went to making my cottage pie a bit more special.

Whereas the excess risotto and gremolata went to making Griff’s seabass supper. 😊