A little bit of this and that - A first attempt at cooking the daunting Ox Tail
So for some time now I've had this ox tail craving - been longing for that delicious slippery texture of soft gelatine and fat, gelling together tiny bits of tail flesh and sucking up that delectable brown sticky liquid that comes together with a good ox tail stew.
My first time trying ox tail was a few years back, an Indonesian style soup. Memory fails me slightly and I can only remember that it was a rather chunky meal parcel that wraps a bone in the middle. Perhaps how it was prepared that first time wasn't the best, but it was an initial introduction to this finger-licking cut of meat.
My second and third time trying ox tail was at my friend's mom's house. My friend Amy is Taiwanese, and her parents moved to Melbourne over 20 years ago. Her mother still hasn't lost her sense of Asian cooking and whips up the most delicious ox tail stew ever! (Ok, so I can't really compare it with anything given that I don't have any prior experience with the stew). Today my local market (South Melbourne) was selling packs of ox tail at $9.99/kg and I thought, what the heck, let's just give it a go. So I picked it up, and grabbed a bunch of herbs and root veggies to cook together with it. My dear cousin in the UK has done a superb recipe of ox tail and his method marries French and Eurasian Portuguese. I looked through recipe and tempting as it sounds, I really wanted to eat my ox tail tonight, and not tomorrow as he had suggested. So I edited his recipe slightly, used my culinary instincts and have started the pot going with a recipe I've come up with which incorporates his French/Portuguese recipe with the flavours of the Taiwanese one. Fingers crossed it doesn't come out tasting confused and awful!
Here is my "A little bit of this and that Ox tail stew" recipe:
2kg Ox Tail pieces
2 sprigs of rosemary, rinsed or plucked straight from your veggie garden
Bay leaf, fresh
Whole peppercorns (you can put them in a muslin bag so it's easier to pick out)
Several garlic cloves
One large brown onion/several small brown onions
Tomato, quartered
Carrots, chopped roughly
Celery, chopped roughly
Vinegar - I used white wine vinegar rather than black vinegar
Dark Soy
A spoonful of honey
One cinnamon quail, several star anise - rinsed
Salt to season
Knob of butter for cooking
Method:
I incorporated my cousin's tips while cooking, but because his recipe calls for a true labour of love, I tweaked it slightly. Fingers crossed the result is good!
First heat up the knob of butter and caramelise it slightly - take good care not to burn the butter because then it'll be all bitter and yuck. When the butter has turned a rich golden shade, put in several pieces of ox tail and sear at high heat on all sides so nice and browned. Do this until all the pieces of ox tail are browned.
Next, drop in the onion, garlic and fry very lightly until just softened. Add the root veggies and toss until coated in the lovely golden butter and fragrant. Mm - nothing's gone wrong, yet!
Add the ox tail pieces back into the pot, lay on top of all the other ingredients and drizzle a few tablespoons of dark soy sauce over the ox tail pieces (I am sorry, Erwin, I couldn't help but add this!) and add water until meat and veggies are just covered. Stir slightly so soy mixes in with liquid.
Break the bay leaf in half, drop in - I find that breaking the bay leaf releases the flavour better than throwing the whole leaf in. I've read online that drying the bay leaf results in a stronger flavour, so perhaps I'll keep a few leaves aside to dry and use in pastas and other dishes. I also pulled the rosemary leaves off their stalks and dropped them in. Personally I like the flavour rosemary injects to meat because it takes away some of that meaty smell (I mean I know some people LOVE strong tasting and smelling meats but I for one am not a fan! somehow it almost feels as though their smell will pass to me when i am eating the meat. ECKS!)
Bring the water to a slow boil, and by this I mean really slow, mini bubbles. None of that churning bubbling cauldron type bubbles but slowly bubbling. I then placed my spices around the ox tail pieces, and positioned my quartered tomato strategically (yes I am anal when it comes to spreading my flavours out, cooking is NOT about throwing everything in haphazardly...)
And then now... I wait... :) See the WIP picture...
NOTE TO HOME CHEFS: Please keep watch over your ox tail every 1/2 hour to 45mins as you will notice a LOT of oil on the surface. Skim off as much as you can while retaining the beautiful brown sticky sauce beneath. That's where all the flavour is. The oil is really just bad fats that won't do you any good... Halfway through I added a tablespoon of beechworth honey (Local Victorian honey which is ooh la la yum) and a tablespoon of brown sugar. :) These additions gave it just a slight tinge of sweetness however if you prefer your dish all savoury then just leave it out!
5hours of light bubbling and my ox tail dish was done. The stock had reduced to a sweet sticky thick brown sauce, and the ox tails glistened with a mixture of oil and gelatin. I dressed the dish with a few coriander leaves, torn loosely and I wish words could describe the rich aroma that wafted around my little apartment but there are none. Unfortunately, when the dish was ready to be served, my guests and I were so hungry we whacked the entire lot of ox tail and I stupidly forgot to snap a picture for keepsakes. AHHHHH. Shall make this again next month and get a shot to update this post. Grrr. Silly me.
Verdict? Well, my guest who isn't an ox tail fan could not resist trying a piece and ended up taking an entire ox tail piece on his own! He was very impressed and his version of a compliment was asking me if there was any MSG because it tasted so yum! Alrighty, enough self indulgent praise but gotta say, I'm very proud of myself with this first attempt at Ox tail. :) WOOHOO!!! Yes, although it's not a "pure" recipe by any standards, it is a good recipe to introduce the uninitiated to the daunting thought of ox tail. Perhaps I should try an ox tongue recipe next?
Definitely making ox tail again. But maybe next time I'll put the camera right in front of my plate and take a damn picture!
