Osso “Buko” Kinda

One of the recipes in Four Hour Chef was Osso “Buko”. Which the version in the book is braised lamb shanks. The recipe is super simple and supposed to be amazingly delicious. I decided to give it a try and of course document it for all of you. If you want to recipe as it is in the book pick it up since I take a few liberties. Now lets get cooking!

Ingredients

The ingredients for this recipe are as follows:

• Lamb Neck (or shanks)
• Carrots
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• White Wine
• Canned Tomato
• Garlic

There is a small butcher shop I had passed by a dozen times and wanted to check them out. I went in and asked for Lamp shanks. The guy in the shop said he could go check in the back for some shanks or I could use this beautiful lamb neck. He said it was a great cut and braised much better than shanks. That the butcher guys were fighting for it. Well sure of course I will give lamb neck a try. Now as I write this I’m thinking I should have gone with the shanks. I’ll explain why in a bit.

First chop the ends off your carrots and line the bottom of your pot. In 4HC Tim says to use a dutch oven and sadly I don’t have one yet.

Put your lamp in your cooking vessel. Add the wine to cover 1/2 to 2/3 of the lamp. Drizzle about 2T of olive oil, 1t of garlic, Two pinches of salt and ten turns of the pepper shaker. Also don’t forget to add the canned tomato’s. The cook book left that step out and I had to grab the pot out of the over and add them. Also I should have split the neck to help with the cooking.

Put a lid on the pot and place in a preheated oven at 350º for two hours. That is the directions for the shanks or a split neck. After which time it was supposed to fall off the bone. That is not what happened in my case. After two hours it was still tough. Tough as freaking crap. I let it go another thirty minutes. Still tough! At that time I decided to cut it into three smaller pieces, cutting around the bone. Removed some of the liquid and placed back in the over to cook until it finally falls off the bone.

In the end I’m thinking it is best to follow the recipe at least the first time. Unless this thing finally comes out ends up being divine. We will see now I’m starving, smelling this wonderful neck cooking and waiting. I’ll update this post when it finally comes out. I wish I had some of the wine left while I’m waiting…

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