Veal Shanks Bourgeois : Roulles de Veau Bourgeoise : LCB at Home : Lesson 3 : Part 3

These were very very good - a success one might say - and several did.

Forgot to snap the picture until after they started serving - in the upper left of the shot you can see some already portioned out. As for the cooking, what I actually did was...

Veal Shanks Bourgeois : Roulles de Veau Bourgeoise : Veal Shanks with Pearl Onions and Mushrooms

Serves: 7

Ingredients

• 7 veal shanks (good sized ones), or a 2 kg piece [4 #] sawn into 7 slices; each about 4 cm [1.5 inches] thick
  
• 60 g butter [4 T, 2 oz]
• 30 g flour [1/4 C, 1 oz]
• 1 Bouquet Garni
  • 4 twigs dried thyme, 10 cm celery top [4"], 1 bay leaf, 4 sprigs parsley (biggish), wrapped in 2 pieces of the green part of the stalk from a leek, tied with twine/string
• 1 1/2 t Salt
• 1 t Black pepper, freshly ground
  
  
• 15 g butter [1 T, 0.5 oz]
• 350 g little button mushrooms, trimmed and cleaned[12 oz]
  
  
• 30 pearl onions, peeled
• 1 clove
  
  
• 2 egg yolks

Procedure

1. Veal shanks into a big enough pot, cover with water, bring to a boil
2. Reduce to a simmer - simmer for 15 minutes
3. Skim the (inevitable) gunk floating on the top of the water
4. Remove veal, set aside
5. Strain the cooking liquid (and save it for later)
   
   
6. Butter into a big frying/sauté pan (big enough to hold all the meat), medium heat
7. Add flour, whisk for a couple of minutes (avoid browning this "roux")
8. Whisk in 2 cups of the reserved cooking liquid
9. Return veal to the pan (I had to stack it in two layers - doesn't matter)
10. Add more cooking juices to just cover the veal (thus, a single layer would have been better)
11. Bring slowly to a boil
    • moving things around to keep the flour from sticking to the bottom
12. Reduce to a simmer
13. Add the bouquet garni
14. Add salt and pepper (remember to taste again before the end)
15. Simmer for 45 minutes
    
    
16. Meanwhile, 1 T of butter into a frying pan, high heat
17. Add mushrooms
18. Saute vigorously until they A) start giving off their liquids and B) that liquid has evaporated from the pan
19. Set aside to add to the meat stew later on
    
    
20. After the 45 minutes mentioned above, stick the clove into one of the onions & add the onions to the meat pot
21. Simmer for 15 minutes more
22. Check, with the point of a small sharp knife, that the meat is tender
    
    
23. Here's a tricky bit - 5 minutes before the meat is ready (you'll have to guess) add the mushrooms
    
24. When done, almost falling from the bone, remove the meat to a platter (leaving behind all the liquid)
25. Remove the onions and mushrooms (decorate around the meat)
26. Cover with foil to keep in the heat
    
    
27. Reduce the cooking liquid by a third or a half (mine was 2 layers deep so I had a lot of liquid to reduce)
28. Egg yolks: whisk (with a fork?) together with a ladle of the (hot) cooking liquid (called "tempering" the yolks)
29. Dump this mixture into the main pot, whisking over medium heat, bring it just to a boil again - remove from heat
30. Taste it - add salt probably - maybe some pepper
31. Pour over the veal, onions, mushrooms

Done

Notes

1. This is all really easier than it might seem with the number of steps in the procedure
2. Veal shanks are also known as ossi buchi, osso bucco, veal shin or/and "hind cut"
3. Straining is best done with a somewhat fine sieve (better that than a colander)
4. This is more or less a really simple veal stew
5. The bouquet garni content might vary in other recipes; for example, this one contains no peppercorns - it's fairly typical
6. Pearl onions are sometimes known as pickling onions. They're tiny.
   • If the onions and the mushrooms are about the same size that's visually satisfying
7. Feel free to substitute regular mushrooms, quartered, for button mushrooms
8. The cooking liquid becomes the "gravy"/sauce for this dish so reduce to the amount which seems appropriate for serving with the quantity of meat you've got and the gravy lovingness of those at the table

The Short Version

1. Simmer shanks until tender
2. Half way, do a roux of with some of the liquid
3. Add bouquet garni and season
4. Half way through the rest add onions (& the clove)
5. Meanwhile, sauté-dry the mushrooms (add at almost the end)
6. Remove meat. reduce liquids
7. "liaison" the sauce with egg yolks ("temper" the yolks first)

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