Smoked & Braised Dry Aged Riverbend Osso Buco

Osso Buco is a traditional northern Italian dish. Our take on this traditional dish involves bringing a little “country” into the preparation by smoking the dry aged cut at low temperature with wood chips.

Ingredients:

• 3 Riverbend Ranch dry aged beef Osso Buco beef shank.  The shank will vary in size (plan on one bone for every 2-3 persons)

• Pinch of kosher or sea salt

• 1 tbsp of white pepper

• Tomato paste (one small can for every 3-4 shank bones)

• 1 white onion

• 2 garlic cloves

• 2 cups of red wine

• 2 cups of beef stock

• 3 Bay leaves

• Fresh herbs of your choosing (thyme, rosemary, etc)

• Extra virgin olive oil or grape seed oil

Preparation:

Step 1

Season the beef shank with salt and pepper generously. 

Step 2

Place the shank bones in a smoker at 225° degrees. Do not place directly over the heat. The goal here is to impart flavor more so than cooking the meat.  After 30-45 minutes, flip the shank bones over and continue to smoke for another 30-45 minutes.  The smoke flavor can be quite powerful so you will have to use your judgment on the time you smoke the meat.  If there is a lot of smoke, you can cut this time down to 45-60 minutes.

Step 3

We recommend smoking the night before you braise to allow the smoked meats to chill in the refrigerator overnight. This is not a must however, so if you don’t have time for this, no problem. Just proceed with the preparation.

*Note - If you do not have a way to smoke the shank bones, just sear the seasoned shanks in the pot you intend on braising them in with a little olive oil.  You wont get the smoked “country twist” on this preparation but it will still be amazing!

Step 4

Preheat your oven to 350°

While the oven is preheating, place the shank bones in a Dutch oven. The key here is that the lid must seal well, so a cast iron or enamel metal pot with a heavy lid works best. 

Expert tip – brush on a little olive oil on the lid and pot edge to help seal the lid and keep moisture in

Add beef stock so that 2/3 of the meat is covered. Add red wine so that the liquid come up to just below the top of the meat. (don’t use the good stuff – serve that with the completed dish 😊) Because the bones vary in height, use an average for determining how much beef stock and wine to add. 

Add 3 bay leaves into braising liquid. Spoon out the tomato paste and cover the tops of the shank bone with the back of your spoon. Chop coarsely 2 cloves of garlic and sprinkle into the pot. Remove the outside layer of the white onion and cut it into large chunks about 1 to 1 ½ inch in size and add them into the pot around and over the top of the shanks. Place some fresh herbs over the top of the onions.

Step 5

Seal the lid (remember the oil trick) and place the pot into the oven at 350° for one hour.  Then reduce the temperature to 225° for an additional 6-7 hours.  Do not be tempted to open the oven or unseal the pot. Trust us, its good!

*Remove the pot from the oven and use small tongs or a serving fork to remove a portion of the meat to place over the starch of your choice. 

Remove the marrow bones and place them in a dish. With several demitasse spoons. The meat is super rich and goes a long way in richness in filling up your guests!

*For your next meal – you can save the rich broth from the braising pot by skimming off any fat and use it to make a gravy with it for a future meal. It freezes well for future use. The flavor cannot be beat!  When you are going to use it, heat it in a saucepan to a medium boil and thicken it with corn starch dissolved in warm water to help thicken it at the time you plan to serve it.

Dry Aged Beef & Stuffed Spaghetti Squash

Enjoy this seasonal winter gourd stuffed full of dry aged Riverbend Ranch ground beef. The texture of the baked spaghetti squash combined with the ragu sauce make this the ultimate comfort dinner.

• 1 pound Riverbend Ranch dry aged ground beef

• 2 medium spaghetti squash (2 to 2-1/2 pounds)

• 1/2 cup chopped onion

• 1 garlic clove, minced

• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil

• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/8 teaspoon pepper

• 1 can (14-1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes, drained

• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

• Fresh basil for garnish (optional)

Step 1

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

Step 2

Cut squash in half diagonally, scoop out seeds with a spoon, place on a baking sheet, and bake 40 minutes, or until tender. Remove from heat, cool, and shred squash pulp with a fork. Place shredded squash pulp in a bowl and set squash shells aside to re-stuff.

Step 3

Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a casserole dish.

Step 4

In a skillet over medium heat, brown the green pepper, red pepper, onion, and garlic. Add Riverbend dry aged ground beef and sauté until cooked. Drain any excess fat.

Step 5

Mix the tomatoes and shredded squash and into the skillet, and season with oregano, basil, salt, and pepper. Cook and stir until heated through. Spoon the squash mixture back into the spaghetti squash shells. Cover the top of each squash with shredded cheese and transfer to the prepared casserole dish.

Step 6

Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven until cheese is golden. Let cool for 5 minutes, and enjoy!

Shoo Fly Pie

This shoofly pie has all the flavors of sweet cane syrup mixed with a buttery streusel in a flakey pastry crust. The rich, spicy, sweet filling just melts in your mouth bite after bite.

Ingredients:

For the Crumbs:

• 1 ½ cups all purpose flour

• ¼ teaspoons grated nutmeg

• ¼ teaspoon ground ginger

• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt

• 1 cup light brown sugar, packed

• ¼ cup butter, cubed and cold

For the Filling:

• ½ teaspoon baking soda

• ¾ cup boiling water

• ½ cup sugar cane syrup

• 1 large egg yolk, well beaten

• Pie crust

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F and line a pie dish with the single crust pastry. Or you can use store bought.

2. Combine all the ingredients for the crumbs in a bowl and cut the butter into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or fork until it resembles coarse crumbs. You can also use a food processor.

3. In a small bowl dissolve the baking soda into the boiling water then mix in the cane syrup and then the egg, whisking to combine completely.

4. Layer the filling and crumbs in alternating layers ending with the crumbs. I did three layers.

5. Bake pie in preheated oven for 10 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 350°F and continue baking about 20 minutes or until the filling feels like jello when pressed. It should be firm but still have some give. Just remember it will get harder as it cools!

6. Cool at room temperature. Serve with whipped cream or ice-cream!

Seasonal Stout & Beef Stew

This dry-aged beef and stout stew might just be the king of them all! Guinness Beer gives the sauce an incredible rich, deep flavor, and the dry aged Riverbend beef is fall apart tender.

Ingredients

• 2 tbs olive oil

• 1 tbs unsalted butter

• 5 large carrots, cut into 1 inch pieces

• 2 sweet white onions, quartered

• 1 (4 lbs) chuck roast, well marbled

• 1 to 2 tbs Kosher or sea salt

• 1 tsp garlic powder

• 2 tbs flour

• 12 ounces stout or porter beer

• 2 cups beef broth

• 2 sprigs rosemary

• 2 sprigs thyme

Sear the dry-aged beef with onions and carrots. This caramelizes the vegetables and meat.

Preheat the oven to 250.

1. In a large dutch oven heat the oil and butter until hot but not smoking.

2. Add the carrots, cook until browned, remove from pot and set aside.

3. Add the onions, sear until browned, remove from pot, set aside.

4. Sprinkle with roast on all sides with salt, garlic powder and the flour. Rub the flour in evenly.

5. Sear in the pan until browned on all sides, remove from the pot.

6. Pour the beer into the pot, scraping to deglaze the pan.

7. Add the meat and vegetables back into the pot. Add broth, rosemary and thyme. Bring to a gentle simmer.

8. Cover with an oven safe lid, transfer to the oven and cook until fork tender, about 4 hours. Serve over mashed potatoes or rice!

Seasoned Ground Beef with Sweet Italian Sausage and Pasta

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INGREDIENTS:

• 1 1/2 Pounds Ground Beef

• 1 Pound Sweet Italian Sausage

• 1 Jar of your favorite Pasta Sauce, if you want to enhance this a little more add the next 3 ingredients

• 1/2 teaspoon Oregano - crushed

• 1/2 teaspoon Basil - crushed

• 1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder

• I 1/2 Tablespoon Cracker Cow Seasoning (1 T per pound of GB)

• 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup water

• Grated Parmesan Cheese

• Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

• Pasta of your choice, we tend to use Angel Hair a lot for a non-baked pasta dish, or I just used a Cheese Ravioli to make a “Lazy Man’s Lasagna”. I used thin spaghetti. But you can combine everthing and use Ziti or Rigatoni for a baked dish.

Instructions:

• Combine Cracker Cow Seasoning with Ground Beef and Mix well. You can cook as crumbles or make into little meatballs. We decided to make little meatballs so we added and egg to help the meatballs hold together.

• Brown Ground Sweet Italian Sausage into crumbles.

• In a large saucepan combine the Pasta Sauce, Oregano, Basil, Garlic and cooked meats and simmer to combine the spices more into the sauce. (Maybe 1/2 hour to 45 minutes.) Enough time to let the meat absorb some of the sauce flavors.

• You may need to add a little water to the sauce after adding the meat for some more volume to the sauce.

• Cook the pasta per package instructions.

• This is where you can serve as a dish or combine ingredients to do a baked pasta dish. I would recommend baking at 350 degrees for 1/2 hour.