Wild Venison Osso Buco with Risotto alla Milanese.
A make-ahead braise with a luxurious Italian side dish.
This month on ingredient (well last month, but with this we’re finally up to date!) we’re focusing on Tinned Tomatoes: probably the most essential ingredient in all our cupboards which is always on standby to add depth, richness and a dose of Italian sunshine - even in the depths of winter - to everything you’re cooking.
You can already find the recipe for my Tomato Braised Bean and White Fish Stew with Gremolata here, and my one pan melty mozzarella-heavy recipe for Eggs in Purgatory here.
Do upgrade your subscription to unlock every recipe in the ingredient archive as well as my full Kitchen Cupboards interviews, and of course to help fund the free part of what I post here! No creative likes asking for money, but without it ingredient can’t function.
As a family, we tend to eat a lot of venison. Also as a family, one of our favourite dishes is osso buco, and by osso buco I mean the cut, of veal, slow cooked Italian-style in a white wine and tomato braise, topped, as per the Osso Buco in Bianco in the original The River Cafe Cookbook, with gremolata. Served with brown rice to soak up all the juices it was a dish in regular rotation at my parents Northern French home where veal was readily available: the meat fell apart after hours in the oven, the marrow bones ready for me to greedily suck the middles from.
I cook osso buco a lot less now, mainly because good veal is much trickier to come by, and even more costly. And beef? Without that lighter, delicate flavour, beef just doesn’t do it for me with that recipe.
I could write at length about why we should be eating more veal reared with the correct animal welfare standards as a byproduct of the dairy industry, but without demand, here in the UK it is going to remain scarce and expensive.
Another meat we should be eating a lot more of is wild venison: it’s delicious, high protein, and most importantly is the natural byproduct of sustainable deer management to help preserve the beauty and natural balance of our national landscapes and woodlands. Ideally, we should be eating much more venison than we do, especially the wild stuff, rather than park farmed. And happily, it is becoming increasingly available.
So, when I was doing my regular Field & Flower order at the same time as brainstorming some new tinned tomato-themed recipes to bring you all and I spotted some wild venison osso buco in the new arrivals section, I figured it was time to give our old family favourite a refresh a little more suitable for the British dinner table.
First, you need to source some wild venison. As mentioned, Field & Flower have a good selection when the season calls for it, and my parents are avid customers of Deer Box, who not only do some excellent wild venison, but also sell beef and pork: if they have them when you place your order, my father smoked some of their wild boar burgers on the barbecue the other night and they were the best burger I’d had in ages. Obviously, though, if your local butcher has wild venison, always shop local where you can.
Try to choose pieces with the biggest bone possible for good marrow bones if sucking the marrow out is your thing: my only criticism of the Field and Flower venison was that these were a bit small!
Next, the braise. Obviously you’ll want to start with some onion, celery, and a tin of tomatoes (any will work here from regular chopped, to fine, to hand-crushed plum), and whilst white wine is what I usually pair with veal, venison’s natural braising partner is red wine so I went for that instead. And then, taking my cue from both a fantastic and gently spiced venison pie J had at the pub the other week and
’s Mulled Venison Stew (my favourite thing to make with diced venison) I threw in a cinnamon stick and a star anise for a little bit of warmth.
And then, we wait. If you’re slow cooking venison it would be a mistake to eat it the same day: it is always more tender and delicious when reheated the next day (I learned this the hard way last month over two nights of eating a first lacklustre, then fantastic venison bolognese!) So, by stashing it in the fridge overnight and simply heating it up for dinner the next day, you’ve made time for the best and most luxurious side you can possibly serve with Osso Buco: Risotto alla Milanese.
With Osso Buco is one of the few times in Italy it is acceptable to serve risotto as a side dish: Risotto alla Milanese is a simple risotto of saffron, made with a good chicken stock and made rich and creamy with plenty of butter and parmesan. If you have time it is really worth it to give the dish an edge. J’s never been a risotto fan, but he happily helped me polish off a plate of it sitting at the bar of Cafe Murano in St. James one Valentine’s Day.
Leave plenty of time, stir it slowly, and you’ll reap the rewards.
Finally, a little finishing flourish: yes I know I’ve already shared something topped with gremolata this month, but as per our family’s original favourite, whilst it is by no means compulsory a little flourish of orange zest gremolata helps lighten the dish, and brings out the richly spiced notes of the slow cooked venison. Obviously, flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped, would be a quicker yet still worthy route to go down.
Buon appetito!
Wild Venison Osso Buco with Risotto alla Milanese
Serves: 2-3, Preparation time: 20 minutes (plus overnight resting time), Cooking time: 3 hours 15 minutes
The Wild Venison Osso Buco will serve 2 greedy people or 3 people with smaller appetites: you might get a little more or a little less depending on the exact weight your meat is sold in, and how much of that weight is bone and marrow.
The Risotto alla Milanese makes enough for two people to share it as a side dish: I’d not follow this recipe if you were serving it as a main as you’ll go hungry (make my Sausage and Saffron Risotto instead), but by all means repurpose it as a starter.