Nahid Osman's quick tip for beef lovers

Nahid Osman began her journey as a cookery show host for a Kolkata-based TV channel. Now she is more popular for a travelling show on Massranga Television, where she cooks up cuisine of a particular place in Bangladesh. She recently spoke to The Daily Star about her inclination towards beef dishes and also gave a quick tip for beef lovers.

“Most people love beef and this Eid was all about meat. We can cook beef in so many ways, but most Bangladeshis like to have beef in the most conventional way. I am going to give a quick tip of a traditional Italian recipe know as Ossl Bucco, or as it is called in Bangla, 'Korali'. This is typically done with veal shank (leg meat) but you can cook with beef shank.” 

“Shank has great flavour and is easy to cook as long you braise it; with braising, the water and the heat breaks down the collagen, which produce flavour and good texture.”

You need:

Half of a beef shank cut one inch cross-sections; it will look like concentric circle, with an inner circle of bone an innermost circle of marrow.

Ingredients

0.5 cup olive oil

 2 medium sized onion, cut 3 cm thick

 0.5 tsp oregano

0.5 tsp black pepper

0.5 tsp red chili powder

1 tsp coriander powder

0.25 tsp cumin powder

0.25 tsp nutmeg powder

1 tsp garlic, finely chopped

1 tsp ginger finely chopped

2 bay leaves

2 black cardamom pods (elachi)

3 green elachi

5/6 cups stock

1 cup yogurt

Flour for coating

Method:

Place all the shank pieces in a bowl and mix with yogurt, salt, nutmeg, coriander powder and cumin powder.  Marinate for 8 hours.

At first lightly coat the shanks in seasoned flour, heat a pan; gently fry them in two tsp of oil until golden brown, transfer the meat on a dish.

Heat a heavy bottom pan, add rest of the oil, add red chili powder, when it releases its aroma, sauté the ginger, garlic and bay leaves.  Fry until the aroma releases. Now add black cardamom, green cardamom, stir, if necessary add little bit of stock.

Add all the stock and see that it covers the shanks, add tomato and onion, oregano and black pepper. Cover with a lid and cook on low heat for three hours or until the meat of the shanks breaks off. Garnish with some coriander leaves and serve with flatbread (naan or ruti).