Friday, August 01, 2008

Frugal Fridays: Osso Bucco with Soup Pack Mash

Do you ever buy marked-down meat? Do you think it's a health hazard? I buy it all the time, and send it straight to the freezer. That's how we ended up with a pack of beef osso bucco, four pieces for $5. And it's the basis of my Frugal Friday entry for this week.
I bought the beef ($5), a vegetable soup-pack from coles ($2.95) and everything else was in the cupboard already. There may have been half a bottle of wine around as well, but that could just be a rumour. In the end (maybe because of the wine?) the soup veggies didn't get mashed, just eaten as steamed veggies. They were really, really good with the sauce.
Osso Bucco with Soup Pack Mash
4 pieces of beef osso bucco
1 veggie soup pack from Coles (1 onion, 2 carrots, 1 parsnip, 2 potatoes, 1 stick of celery and a lump that looked like half a swede) all chopped.
80g butter
2 Tbsp plain flour
5 Tbsp red wine
175 mL beef stock
2 Tbsp tomato paste
salt and pepper
Melt the butter in a saucepan, then cook half the chopped onion over a low heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Dust the beef with the flour, add to the pan and cook over a high heat until browned all over. Season with salt and pepper, pour in the wine and cook until the wine has evaporated. Add the stock, 1 chopped carrot and 1 chopped celery stick. Lower the heat and simmer, covered for 30 minutes.
At around 15 minutes, steam or boil the rest of the vegetables. Set aside when they are tender.
Mix the tomato paste and a tablespoon of hot water, and add to the osso bucco. Cook for a further 5 minutes. Meanwhile, mash the vegetables together with as much milk and butter as you like.
Bon Appetite!

3 comments:

Bells said...

i buy marked down meat all the time. I love coming home with a load of it that gets cooked or frozen right away. Have never been lucky enough to find marked down osso bucco though!

Homemade Heaven said...

I buy cheaper meat cuts all the time, they have the best flavour, but I always slow cook, like ostrich neck and beef chuck. I see you only needed to cook yours for 30 minutes. Something that cooks that quickly would not be sold as cheap meat in South Africa. It really does look good though.

Kristin said...

This wasn't originally cheap here either Rose - I think it started life at about double the price. But I bought it on the last day they could legally sell it, I think, so it was marked down a lot.
I've never tried ostrich - I wonder if I can buy it here?