Tonight was a birthday dinner for my betterhalf. It's a pretty heavy meal for summer, but its something that she wanted. So it was wagyu / angus beef shank osso bucco with mushroom risotto. I picked up the beef at the farmer's market. I dredged the beef in seasoned flour and browned both sides in a dutch oven. I pulled out the browned meat and added cut carrots, onions, celery, and minced garlic to the dutch oven and cooked several minutes until tender. Then added a cup of red wine (Pine Ridge Petit Verdot) and deglazed the oven and let it simmer a bit. Then added diced stewed tomatoes and chicken stock. I cooked this at 325 deg oven for almost three hours. During the last 40 minutes of the cooking I made the risotto. I picked up oyster mushrooms at the farmer's market and found maitake mushrooms at one of our Hyvee stores. I sauted the mushrooms along with diced onion and minced garlic. Once the onions were translucent I removed them from the pan. I added butter and browned the rice, then added a cup of pinot grigio. While that was going on I made a mushroom stock using the stems of the mushrooms and dried porcinis in chicken stock. Once the wine was adsorbed by the rice, I added about 1/2 cup of the mushroom stock. Risotto is a labor of love. Add stock and stir, add stock and stir, add stock and stir... Just at the end I added the sauted mushrooms, onion, and garlic along with about a 1/3 cup of parmesan cheese.
Here is the plate I made up for my wife.
I had a arugula and mixed green lettuce salad and my own cup of the red wine.