Beurre manié means "kneaded butter" in French. It's made by working together equal parts flour and soft butter.
It works a bit like a roux, except that the beurre manié is uncooked and added at the end of cooking rather than at the start. Like a roux, it's used to thicken and add flavor to soups, stews and sauces. Unlike a roux, which acts as the foundation for a sauce, beurre manié is often used at the last minute to rescue an overly thin or bland sauce.
Beurre manié can be made ahead and frozen in an ice cube tray so that you'll have it on hand when you need it. Whisk a small knob of beurre manié into simmering liquid and cook for a minute or two to cook out the flour taste. If your sauce or stew needs more thickening, add another knob. (You may need to skim the starch off as it rises.)
Reference: What is a roux? (Cookthink)
Reference: What is a pan sauce? (Cookthink)
Related: Thickening It Old School (A Hunger Artist)
Osso buco means “bone with a hole” in Italian. It’s a braised stew traditionally made with veal shanks -- cross sections of the leg including the bone and marrow, which give the stew body and unctuosness.
The general formula for osso buco involves deeply browning veal (or beef) shanks in oil or butter, adding aromatics and braising with stock, wine and tomatoes. Osso buco is traditionally topped with a gremolata.
Osso Buco is a warm, comforting dish filled with rich meaty flavor. Watch step-by-step instructions on how to make this winter classic from Handmade TV.
Back when cooking was done around the glow of a warm fireplace, braising meant sticking whatever it was you were going to eat in the embers of the fire and leaving it there until it was done. These days, to braise means to cook in a little liquid, usually over a relatively long period of time.
To braise, you need a pot with a well fitting lid -- think Dutch oven or tightly covered sauté pan, something that can work both on the stovetop and in the oven. A heavy pan (like enameled cast-iron or stainless steel) is good, too, since it evenly distributes the heat through the food and is less likely to scorch on the bottom.
Braised meats are often seared first in oil or butter. Then, aromatics, spices, vegetables and some cooking liquid -- wine, broth, water -- are often added. The pot can either stay on the stovetop or go into the oven. Leaner meats like pork chops and chicken breasts usually braise for less time on the stovetop. Fattier, more flavorful cuts go into the oven and cook longer.
Braised vegetables are usually started off with a quick sauté in butter or olive oil. The liquid is added, then the pot is usually covered and the vegetable cooked on the stovetop for however long. Any vegetable can be braised, but greens are an usually good choice.
You may have a Dutch oven and not even know it.
A Dutch oven is a large pot with an arched lid that offers extra room for cooking something like a pot roast or whole chicken.
Dutch ovens are available in a variety of shapes and materials. We like our enamel-coated cast iron Dutch oven from Le Creuset that is dishwasher-safe and can withstand 800F heat (if only our oven went so high). The heavy cast iron allows for browning a roast on the stove top and popping it in the oven for several hours, all the while evenly distributing the heat and allowing room for braising liquid.
Do you have to have a Dutch oven? No. A 6-quart tight-lidded pot will do. A good-quality Dutch oven is a luxury to use in the kitchen, though, so you might want to put one on your wish list.
Gremolata (or gremolada) is a simple Italian garnish made of minced parsley, lemon zest and garlic.
Typically, gremolata is served alongside (or on top of) osso buco, but it can also be eaten with fish, chicken, steak or stirred into a pot of fresh fettuccine or soup. Parsley can be replaced with mint or cilantro and orange zest may be substituted for lemon.
Tomato paste vs. tomato purée vs. tomato sauce
Tomato paste vs. tomato purée vs. tomato sauce
Do you sometimes get these confused?
Tomato paste is made from tomatoes that have been cooked for a few hours, strained and reduced into a rich, sweet paste. Tomato paste is most commonly used in pizza sauce. A dollop of tomato paste adds a dark, savory flavor to soups and stews.
Tomato purée consists of tomatoes that have been cooked briefly and strained to produce a thick, tangy liquid. Tomato purée is used in soups, stews and sauces to add the tomato flavoring without the texture. We use it as the flavor base in certain recipes, this Indian chicken stew, for example.
Tomato sauce refers to any sauce made out of tomatoes. That includes the ubiquitous Italian tomato sauce with all its variations, as well as Indian and Thai curries that have a tomato base. Tomato sauce can be canned, jarred or fresh. Time-willing, we prefer to make our own. Try this lasagna with homemade Italian tomato sauce.
Chopping is probably the most common way to prep an onion. Chopped onions show up in anything that needs the basic, earthy pungent flavor that onions give. Chop them larger for longer-cooking dishes like stews and rustic soups, and smaller (call it a dice if you like) for anything from salsas to sauces to ragouts.
To start, cut the onion in half through the root. The root itself will help keep the onion together for chopping
Rotate the onion 90 degrees and cut off the papery end (not the root end). This will make the skin easy to peel away and discard.
Peel back the onion's papery skin. It's often easiest to peel away the first layer of the onion along with the skin.
Make a series of diagonal cuts (roughly 45 degrees) into the side of the onion. Keep more space between the slices for a large chop. Make the cuts closer together for a small chop or a dice.
Now make a series of horizontal cuts to finish shaping the chop or dice.
Finally, rotate the onion again and slice crosswise against the checkerboard pattern you made in the onion. The chopped pieces will fall away from the onion.
