Tiny Urban Kitchen

Exploring Food from Boston to Hong Kong and Beyond

  • About
  • Press
  • Recipes
    • Recipe Index
    • Asian
      • Chinese
      • Taiwanese
      • Thai
      • Malaysian
      • Japanese
      • Korean
    • Appetizers
    • Soups
    • Salad
    • Pasta
    • Noodles
    • Rice
    • Vegetarian
    • Meat
    • Sweets
      • Baking
      • Ice cream
      • Cookies
    • Misc
    • Kawaii (Cute)
  • Travel / Restaurants
    • United States
      • Boston
        • Jen’s Picks
        • Boston
          • Allston
          • Back Bay
          • Brighton
          • North End
          • South End
        • Cambridge
          • Kendall Square
          • Inman Square
          • Central Square
          • Harvard Square
          • Porter Square
          • North Cambridge
        • Somerville
          • Davis Square
          • Union Square
        • Greater Boston
          • Brookline
          • Arlington
          • Belmont
          • Watertown
          • Newton
          • Lexington
          • Concord
          • Burlington
          • Natick
        • Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, Berkshires
      • Vermont
      • Maine
      • New York
      • Washington DC
      • Philadelphia
      • Orlando
      • Chicago
      • Las Vegas
      • California
        • Los Angeles
        • San Francisco
        • Napa
        • Sonoma
      • Seattle
      • Hawaii
    • Canada
      • Montreal
      • Canadian Rockies
      • Toronto
    • Europe
      • United Kingdom
        • London
        • Oxford
      • Italy
        • Rome
        • Piedmont
      • France
        • Paris
        • Bordeaux
      • Spain
        • Madrid
        • Barcelona
      • Germany
      • Switzerland
      • Greece
      • Finland
      • Norway
      • Denmark
    • Japan
      • Japan Guide
      • Tokyo
      • Osaka
      • Kyoto
    • China (Mainland)
      • Beijing
      • Shanghai
      • Shaanxi
      • Yunnan
    • Singapore
    • Hong Kong
    • Malaysia
    • Taiwan
    • Thailand
    • Australia/New Zealand
    • Argentina
  • Michelin
    • Formerly had a star
    • 1 Star
    • 2 Stars
    • 3 Stars
  • Jen’s Eating Guides!
    • Boston Restaurants
    • Boston Dishes
    • Tokyo
    • Hong Kong
    • Las Vegas
    • Napa / Sonoma
    • Taiwan (night markets)
    • Taiwanese (casual eats)
    • Street Foods of Bangkok (Part I)
    • Street Foods of Bangkok (Part II)
    • Kitchen Equipment
  • Trip Reports
    • All trip reports
    • New England
    • New York
    • Washington DC
    • Las Vegas
    • California
    • Canada
    • Europe
    • Florida
    • Japan
    • China

Braised Lamb Osso Buco

January 1, 2013 by Jennifer Che 4 Comments

Lamb Osso Buco
Happy New Year!

Can you believe it’s 2013?

Reflecting back, this holiday “break” has been really different from most holiday breaks I’ve had in years past. One major difference is that for the first time since we’ve been married, Bryan and I did not go back to California to visit his parents.

We had spent three weeks traveling around Australia and New Zealand with them in November, and essentially we had used up almost all of our vacation days for that trip.

So this holiday season, we spent a few days in Ohio with my parents before coming back to Boston to just chill at home.

After traveling so much, it was actually really, really nice to finally be at home. I felt like I hadn’t seen my kitchen in ages. It was fun to finally, finally, experiment in the kitchen again. I cooked, baked, and did all sorts of fun things that I haven’t had time to do in months.

I can’t wait to share some of those kitchen exploits with you in the next few weeks.

For today though, I just wanted to share with you the insanely delicious (and easy!) dish I made for our New Years Eve dinner.
 Flight of Wines
I have a friend Peter who’s really into wine. I may have told you about him before. He’s been collecting wine for years and is always looking for fun and creative ways to showcase the wines.

This year for New Years Eve he decided he wanted to do a French Bordeaux tasting.

He prepared an excellent presentation about the wine region in general, and we had an education tasting, I guess you could say.
Presentation
It was a potluck style dinner, and therefore each person was responsible for bringing some sort of dish that would pair with Bordeaux. More than once, Peter not-so-subtly hinted at me that I should really make a lamb dish.

“I know you don’t like lamb,” he wrote, “but it’s a great application for the pressure cooker.”

It’s true. I don’t love that game-y distinct flavor of lamb, though I often eat it since Bryan loves is to much. And I agree, lamb is probably one of the best meats with which to pair French Bordeaux.

So I buckled under pressure. We also happened to find these lovely lamb osso buco pieces at Costco , which helped seal the deal.

I decided to try out my new pressure cooker, a gift from Bryan not too long ago (more on that soon!).

This dish is pretty straightforward and doesn’t take that long if you have a pressure cooker. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, it’s still easy, but just takes a couple more hours.
Lamb Osso Buco
 Sear the osso buco pieces until they are nicely browned on all sides. Remove from the pot.
Mirepoix
Cook your lovely mirepoix ingredients – carrots, celery, and onions plus some garlic until soft.
Opening a bottle
Deglaze with wine. We went with a very good but not insanely expensive Carbernet-Merlot blend (2009 Château de France, Pessac-Léognan WS 93).  According to Peter, you should never cook with a wine that you would not be willing to drink. The quality of the wine most certainly affects the flavor of your dish.
_1130174
After about 40 minutes in the pressure cooker, the lamb becomes fall-off-the-bone tender. I removed the meat and further reduced the liquid until it was slightly thick, like a nice, hearty sauce.

When I tasted the “sauce”, I felt that it needed something to round it out a bit, so I melted just 2 tablespoons of butter into the mix. Finally, in order to brighten it up just a bit, I added a splash of sweet balsamic vinegar (the good thick stuff you usually eat with strawberries!).
Gremolata
Serve with gremolata, which further brightens the dish up perfectly.
Braised Short Ribs
Enjoy!

The dish was fantastic. The flavors were deep and hearty, yet well balanced by the brightness of the gremolata. I’m sure the fact that I used really good wine added to the beautiful flavors of the dish.

I would absolutely make this again, especially since I can make the entire dish in an hour with a pressure cooker!

Pressure Cooker Braised Lamb Osso Buco
Serves 4

4 pieces lamb osso buco
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
1 cup carrots, chopped
4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped

2-3 cups wine (can be white, red, or a mix of both)
1-2 T tomato paste
2-3 cups chicken stock (or enough to cover the shanks in the pan)

2 bay leaves
1 sprig of rosemary
2 tablespoons butter
1 -2 tsp sweet balsamic vinegar (optional)

Make sure pressure cooker pot is big enough to comfortably fit all the osso buco.

Over medium-high heat in the pressure cooker pot, sear all sides of the lamb osso buco in olive oil until browned. Remove from the pot. To the oil in the pan, add the chopped onion, celery, carrots, and garlic and cook until browned and aromatic (~20 minutes). Add the tomato paste and mix well. Add wine, turn up the heat, and deglaze the pan. Let the mixture cook for about 5-10 minutes to boil off some of the alcohol. Add the osso buco pieces back in, and pour in the chicken broth and tomato paste. Make sure that the meat is covered (or at least mostly covered) in liquid. Add bay leaves and rosemary. Cover and cook at the “1 red ring” level (around 0.4 bar (5.8 psi)) for about 45 minutes.

Release the pressure and remove the meat.

Making the “demi-glace”
Reduce the remaining liquid on medium-high heat until it is almost sauce-like.  If you think the sauce needs to be rounded out or brightened up, add butter (to round out) and/or sweet balsamic vinegar (to brighten). I added both, but it may depend on the nature of your broth, wine, lamb etc.

Serve the osso bucco with the sauce, optionally topped with gremolata.

For starch, consider serving with saffron rice or roasted potatoes.

If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you can also make this dish in the oven. Check out my post on oven-braised lamb shanks. If you would prefer to make it over the stove top, check out my Milanese Veal Osso Buco post which uses that method.

Here’s to 2013!
Flight of Wines

©2009-2014 Tiny Urban Kitchen
All Rights Reserved
Facebook0Twitter0Google plus0

Filed Under: American, Lamb, Meat, Recipe

« Merry (Belated) Christmas!
French Lentil Soup (lentilles du Puy) with Bacon and Fennel »

Recent Posts

  • Yunnan China – Exploring food from the Dai Minority Group [Dai Cuisine] April 16, 2018
  • Exploring Yunnan China! – Jinghong in Xishuangbanna April 12, 2018
  • Seasons Coconut Chicken Hot Pot 润园四季椰子鸡 – Shenzhen China March 28, 2018
  • Mr. & Mrs. Bund Shanghai March 21, 2018
  • 50 Posts in 50 Days Postlude March 20, 2018
  • Sushi Shikon Hong Kong – 3 Michelin Stars March 12, 2018
  • Bo Innovation Hong Kong – 3 Michelin Stars March 11, 2018
  • Australia Dairy Company – Traditional HK style breakfast March 10, 2018

Latest Chinese recipes!

Comments

  1. Megan says

    January 1, 2013 at 9:28 pm

    We made such similar dinners for New Year’s Eve. I did braised beef shanks. The wine tasting sounds fun!

    Reply
  2. Jennifer Che says

    January 1, 2013 at 10:26 pm

    Yum! I’ll have to try that sometime, maybe beef shanks in soy sauce Chinese style! Happy New Year!

    Reply
  3. stDC says

    March 7, 2013 at 12:09 am

    Made it tonight and it was AWESOME! Followed the recipe exactly except used dried rosemary.

    I really think the butter and vinegar at the end made a big difference

    My wife and 6 yr old couldn’t stop raving about it.

    Thanks.

    Reply
  4. Jay says

    May 7, 2013 at 12:06 am

    Terima kasih! (Thank you)! for your very cool way of explaining how to make a very complicated dish “down-to-earth”! Yummo! 🙂

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Welcome to Tiny Urban Kitchen!

JenChe

Hi, my name's Jen and welcome to my cooking, eating, and travel site! I am a Boston to Hong Kong transplant, born and raised in Ohio with parents from Taiwan. Feel free to head on over to the About page if you want to learn more about me, or just explore away, maybe starting with the Recipe Index or one of the travel pages! I hope you enjoy this site!
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Archives

Categories

Awards!

Saveur
PFB

BostonGlobe

Most Recent Posts

XishuangBanna

Yunnan China – Exploring food from the Dai Minority Group [Dai Cuisine]

Exploring Yunnan China! – Jinghong in Xishuangbanna

Seasons Coconut Chicken Hot Pot

Seasons Coconut Chicken Hot Pot 润园四季椰子鸡 – Shenzhen China

Mr. & Mrs. Bund Shanghai

50 Posts in 50 Days Postlude

Sushi Shikon Hong Kong – 3 Michelin Stars

Bo Innovation

Bo Innovation Hong Kong – 3 Michelin Stars

Australia Dairy Company – Traditional HK style breakfast

Trusty Congee King

Trusty Congee King Wan Chai

The Butcher's Club

The Butcher’s Club Burger Hong Kong

France!

Kawaii! (Cute)

Norway!

logo
Food Advertising by

Chinese Recipes

logo
Food Advertising by

Shop & Support us!

Spain!

Japan!

Cambridge restaurants

Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2018 · Foodie Pro Theme by Shay Bocks · Built on the Genesis Framework · Powered by WordPress