Osso Bucco from a Big Bowl of Love Cookbook

Happy Hump Day!  Today is a very exciting day.  First of all, today is the Bunkycooks 9th wedding anniversary.   Woo hoo!  We also released our new website yesterday for our On the Road culinary adventures.  I think those two events are worthy of a celebration with a delightful cookbook giveaway, don’t you?

I was excited to be able to review Cristina Ferrare’s new cookbook, Big Bowl of Love.  I grew up seeing Cristina on the covers of fashion magazines such as Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar and on various television shoes.  Cooking has always been a big part of her life as well as her family’s, so I was curious to see the types of dishes that she enjoys preparing.  Cristina also has her own cooking show on OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network), Cristina Ferrare’s Big Bowl of Love.

I was thrilled to see her cookbook so beautifully illustrated in photographs by my friends Diane Cu and Todd Porter (White on Rice Couple).  I admire them and their talent and feel that they captured the heart and soul of Cristina, her cookbook and the recipes perfectly.

I chose to make Cristina’s Osso Bucco.  The taste of the final dish resembled a rich Veal Piccata.  The recipe was very simple to prepare, yet the flavors were complex.  I did serve it (one of the suggestions) with Cristina’s Yukon Gold Mash with Scallions, which was a very nice accompaniment.  We liked Todd and Diane’s photos of the Osso Bucco so much, we tried to make ours look as good as theirs!  Who else could make cooked meat look so appealing? 😉

This versatile dish is perfect for a family dinner or is elegant enough to serve for a dinner party.  I completed the plate with some sautéed carrots.  Add a nice bottle of Pinot Noir and you have a delightful dinner!

This dish makes a beautiful presentation for a special dinner.

I know you would love to win this cookbook just in time for Mother’s Day (May 8th), so here is how you enter the giveaway.

To enter the giveaway, you will need to do the following:

***THIS GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED***

Leave me a comment telling me what would make your Mother’s Day a perfect one!

Extra Entries:

* I can only count the entries that are left separately.  If you leave more than one entry in one comment, it will only count as one comment.  The automated selector will only count the total number of  individual comments left on my site.

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This giveaway ends at 5 pm EST on Wednesday April 27th, 2011.

I will notify the winner by email. Please get back to me with your shipping information within 48 hours.

* Regretfully, I can only ship this cookbook to a winner in the U.S. or Canada.

Good Luck!

Osso Bucco

Ingredients:

Kosher salt
Cracked pepper
4 pounds veal shanks. Rinsed and dried
¾ cup all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup dry white wine
4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 quart chicken stock, homemade of store-bought organic chicken broth (I used Swanson’s)
¼ cup loosely packed Italian parsley, chopped fine
Zest of 1 lemon

Directions:

Salt and pepper the veal shanks lightly on both sides. Dredge in flour and set aside.

For 3 minutes, heat a skillet large enough to hold all 4 pieces of beef (veal). Add the oil and swirl it around the pan. Add the beef (veal) and saute it for 4 to 5 minutes on each side. Add the wine and cook until the wine is reduced by half. Add the lemon juice and the chicken stock. Cover, and bring to just under a boil. Reduce heat to a low simmer. Simmer the meat for 2 hours, turning it after 1 hour. Remove the lid, raise the heat to medium, and cook until the liquid is reduced to about 1 1/2 cups. The meat is cooked when you can insert a fork easily right through the meat; it should literally be falling off the bone.

Sprinkle on chopped parsley and lemon zest before serving.

Cristina Ferrare
Big Bowl of Love

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