Royco! A brand I hadn’t heard of for ages decided to do a media drop for me. Since it’s winter and it’s the perfect time for beautiful stews, I thought I’d make my favourite osso bucco that I learnt from Gary Mehigan from Master Chef Australia. It’s really simple and delicious!
- 1.5kg bobby veal shin, cut 2.5cm thick (about 12 pieces) I actually use regular beef stewing meat, easier to find and readily available in all super markets.
- 1 cup plain flour
- 100ml olive oil
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1 carrot, peeled and diced
- 1/4 bunch parsley stalks, leaves picked and roughly chopped, stalks reserved
- 4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- 250ml white wine
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 bay leaf
- 6 sprigs thyme
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 400g tin crushed tomato
- 2 cups veal stock
- 100g dried cannellini beans, soaked overnight
To finish
- Freshly cracked white pepper and sea salt
- 1/2 bunch parsley leaves, roughly chopped
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 1 loaf crusty bread, thickly sliced
- Preheat oven to 180 C.
- Season meat with salt and white pepper and toss in flour to coat, shaking off the excess flour.
3. Heat oil in a frying pan, add meat and pan fry until caramelized.
4. Add celery, onion, carrot, reserved parsley stalks, garlic and cook 10 minutes.
5. Add your garlic last as it can burn quickly when cooked at the same speed as the root vegetables.
6. Add tomato paste and cook for 1-2 minutes.
7. Deglaze with wine.
8. Add remaining ingredients (beans, herbs, stock and tomatoes).
9.Cover with a lid and cook for 1 1/2-2 hours. *The cooking time is usually enough to reduce the sauce. If it gets too thick too quickly, add more stock.
10. Remove lid, cook for 45 minutes until sauce has thickened.
Earlier on in the evening I boiled the kettle and tried to make some Royco in a cup (little hot water) to add to the stew, but it instantly seized up. So there’s no need to dissolve it first. When they mean it makes things thicker, they mean it!
After the stew had cooked for nearly 2 hours I decided to do a thickening test. Now considering I was paying for all these ingredients myself (only the Royco was free), I was anxious to put the Royco in, hate the taste, ruin the ingredients and waste my money! I’m not much into powered food so I took most of the stew out and then left some in to do a taste test. I then sprinked in some Royco power and gave it a stir.
Instantly the sauce began to thicken up. I tentatively gave it a taste and it was really good! I didn’t waste this sauce, I added it back to the stew that I was going to have for lunch the next day. Below you can see the spoon without Royco (thinner on left) and with Royco (thicker on right).
To finish up the dish (traditionally), serve with crusty bread, sprinkle with cracked pepper, sea salt, chopped parsley and lemon zest.
In all honesty, this recipe doesn’t really need a thickening agent due to the amount of time that it spends being cooked. If, however, you do want to add Royco, that’s totally fine! It tastes good and totally won’t ruin your dish. Or, if you make stew at home and you can’t ever get enough flavour into it or it’s not thick enough, give the Royco a whirl. It’s winter, now’s the time to make delicious, wholesome home made stews. Enjoy!
