Beef shin cooked low and slow in white wine until the gelatine turns the sauce silky, cut through with a raw lemon and parsley gremolata.
Prep
20 mins
Cook
3h 30m
Servings
4
Per serving
£3.90
Difficulty
medium
An osso buco in spirit, made with beef shin because it is a third of the price of veal and every bit as good. The gremolata is not a garnish - stirring raw lemon zest, garlic and parsley through at the table is what stops four hours of braising tasting heavy.
Heat the oven to 140C fan. Pat the beef shin completely dry and season hard with 1.5 tsp of the salt and the pepper.
Heat the oil in a heavy casserole and brown the shin pieces in batches over a high heat, 4-5 minutes a side, until seriously dark. Do not rush this - without flour to help, the browning is your only source of colour in the sauce. Lift out.
Turn the heat down, add the butter and cook the onion, carrot and celery with the remaining salt for 15 minutes until soft and sweet. Add the chopped garlic for a minute.
Pour in the wine, scrape the base clean and let it reduce by half. Add the tomatoes, stock, bay and thyme.
Return the beef, bring to a bare simmer, put the lid on and transfer to the oven for 3 hours, turning the pieces once at the halfway point.
The meat is ready when a spoon slides through it and the marrow has melted out of the bones. If the sauce is thin, lift the meat out and boil the liquid hard for 10 minutes.
Cooked a day ahead and reheated gently, this is noticeably better.
Mix the lemon zest, grated garlic and parsley for the gremolata. Serve the shin with plenty of sauce and the gremolata scattered over at the last second.