AUTUMN FOOD AND _WINE Food

Make mine Milan

Jennifer Paterson

MY FRIEND Ian Scott telephoned me last week wanting to know how to cook osso- buco, which to my amazement was not in my book, as I had supposed. So as All Saints and All Souls (when you eat ossa dei morti) and St Charles Borromeo of Milan have passed us by, let us have the required receipt, which is a great favourite of mine and Bruce Bernard's. In fact, it is stewed shin of veal with the delicious marrow bone left in the centre.

Ossobuco alla Milanese

Olive oil and butter

8 ossibuchi, sawn into pieces 2 in thick 2 onions, finely chopped 1 carrot, finely chopped

1 stick celery, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, finely chopped plain flour for coating the meat salt and freshly ground pepper 5 fluid oz dry white wine 114 oz tin chopped tomatoes

1/4 pint chicken stock

1 bay leaf and a pinch of dried thyme For the gremolata: Lemon peel grated, parsley, garlic

Try to get your butcher to saw the shin into roughly the same size pieces so they will cook evenly. Shake the pieces in a plas- tic bag of seasoned flour to coat them. Choose a heavy frying pan or casserole which can take all the meat in a single layer. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil and 3 oz of butter, then brown the pieces of veal on both sides. Add all the chopped raw veg- etables, the bay leaf and thyme and simmer for ten minutes, giving it the odd push and stir but keeping the meat upright so the marrow doesn't fall out. Pour the wine in and boil rapidly until almost evaporated; add the stock and the chopped tomatoes and season to taste. Cover and cook over a very low heat for two hours, either on top of the stove or in the oven, at Gas 2, 310F, 154C. You can serve it as it is, or you can transfer the meat pieces to a warmed plate and liquidise all the vegetables to form a medium-thick sauce, reheat and pour over the meat, keeping everything good and hot. For the gremolata, mix together a teaspoon of grated lemon peel with a very finely chopped garlic clove and a tablespoon of finely chopped parsley. The scent from this mixture is a marvel. Scatter all over the ossibuchi and serve with the traditional risotto Milanese. You can omit the toma- toes in the stew if you wish for a more deli- cate taste.

Risotto Milanese

13/4 pints light chicken stock

1 shallot, finely chopped 2 oz beef marrow 3 oz unsalted butter 12 or arborio rice 3 fluid oz dry red or white wine

1/3 teaspoon powdered saffron (about 4 fila- ments)

salt and pepper 2 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan cheese

Bring the stock to a low simmer and keep at the ready. In another saucepan, melt 2 oz of the butter and the beef marrow (ask the butcher for a bone and scrape it out), sauté the shallot until soft and transparent, add the rice and stir thoroughly to coat all the grains with the fat. Pour in the wine and stir until it is absorbed, then add 1,/, pint of the stock, stirring constantly. Continue like this until nearly all the stock is used up, then add another 1/4 pint and so on. The risotto should be cooking at a steady simmer. Halfway through the cooking, which should take 25 to 30 minutes, add the saffron dis- solved in a little of the hot stock. When the rice is ready and all the stock has been used up (it should be soft and creamy), take off the heat, adjust the seasoning and mix in the rest of the butter and the parmesan cheese. Let it rest for a minute or two, then serve at once with more parmesan handed round separately. The other request from Mr Scott was a killer chocolate pudding from Patricius Senhouse, my old china from Cumberland.

Sudden Death

v, lb digestive biscuits 1/, lb unsalted butter 2 eggs

2 oz caster sugar 202 chopped walnuts 2 oz chopped glace cherries

3 fluid oz rum, brandy or whisky 1/2 lb Menier chocolate or the like Grease and line a 1 lb tin or container. No cooking is required, so it can be any- thing that takes your fancy. Crush the bis- cuits roughly in a plastic bag. Melt the chocolate in a bowl set over hot water. Beat the butter, eggs and sugar until thick and frothy. Fold in the chocolate, biscuits, nuts, cherries and liquor. Pour into the tin and chill overnight. (It can also be frozen.) Turn out and decorate with more cherries and walnuts. Serve with whipped cream. Force yourself.

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