beef oxtail recipes?

[Jennifer W.]

I bought some at the grocery store because I love eating it at restaurants but have not a clue how to cook them. I really want to learn. Help! Please share with me your favorite recipes. I'm open to all cuisine types. Thanks.

[anna]

I usually make oxtail soup, but you can reduce the amount of liquid and make it into a stew.
I start by placing the oxtail in a large pot and fill it with enough tap water to about an inch over the oxtail. Bring it to a boil, turn down the heat and let it simmer for about 2 hours, covered partially with lid. Check the liquid periodically and make sure the oxtail is fully submerged. Add liquid if neccessary. (You can use water or broth for more flavor.) After 2 hours, I prep the vegetables. I usually use carrot, celery, onion, cabbage and tomato. I take the lid off of the pot and begin to put the vegetables in one at a time as I washed and cut them in large chunks. Once everything is in and up to a boil, I turn down the heat again and let it simmer with the lid on partially. Cook until oxtail is fork tender (1 to 2 more hours).
You can do the same thing in a crockpot if you don't want to pay that much attention to it. Just put the oxtail and vegetables in the crockpot all at once and let it cook overnight on low.
If you serve this as a stew, it'll be good over some rice. I also like to add a few dash of Tabasco for heat.

[tigrr_lily]

Why wait 2 hours or more? I just use a pressure cooker for any kind of meat I want to have falling apart on my spoon. My favorite to use beef oxtails or bone-in lamb shoulder with is "sherwa", an afghani soup.

My recipe is:
1 pkg oxtails
1-1.5 lbs lamb cubes (or just use lamb if you can get bone-in pieces)
1 onion
2 tomatoes
s & p
1 t ground corriander
1 large turnip
2-3 potatoes
cilantro or seasonal greens

Sautee the onions until soft in the bottom of your pressure cooker with s & p and corriander. Chop 2 tomatoes and add them. Cook until soft. Add oxtails and enough water/broth to cover them. Pressure cook for 10 min. Add lamb chunks and water to desired level. Pressure cook for 15 minutes. Cut turnips and potatoes into *large* chunks, i.e. into 4ths. Pressure cook for 5 min. Stir in greens and adjust salt. Serve with good bread sopped in it. Either add enough bread to make it a solid and eat with hands or use less bread and a spoon. Yum!

[Timowitz]

I've never made it, but I believe the broth for the Vietnamese fabulousness called "pho" is oxtail based.

My favorite oxtail recipe is the oxtails braised in red wine from Epicurious.com. It's fabulously rich, in part because the red wine and beef broth is boiled down until it's sticky. Two modifications: I don't use Burgundy (I go with the cheapest Oregon pinot noir I can find, although I did splurge on a $100 bottle of Burgundy to go with it once); and I skip the butter that is supposed to be incorporated at the very end (and don't remember if I browned the oxtails in butter or oil at the start). It should be made a day or two in advance to let the flavors marry and to facilitate removing fat.

This is a recipe from La Grenouille, a high-end restaurant in Manhattan (is it still around?) and doesn't need all the richness that was undoubtedly part of the high-end traditional French restaurant experience.

It's good with noodles, rice, or pureed potatoes or celery root.

Link: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/rec...

[jumpingjack]

I made the epicurious recipe and it was so delicious. For wine, I used a $3.99 wine -- not a Burgundy -- from Trader Joe's call Abrazo del Toro. Also I did use the butter at the end. There was leftover sauce that I froze because it was so good.

[BeaN]

As far as this peasant girl is concerned, the tail is the finest cut on the cow.

Trim the meat, season as desired, dredge in flour if desired. Sweat onion, celery and carrot. Brown the pieces of oxtail on all sides. Braise. Cook low and slow until the meat falls away from the bone when touched with a fork.

I like to braise oxtail in red wine. You can change the flavor of the dish by varying the braising liquid, amount of liquid and the things that you cook along with it. Serve in a bowl as soup or stew according to thickness, serve over rice, noodles or cous cous. Gnaw the bones and suck the marrow. . .

Oxtail does tend to be quite fatty. I trim the visible fat and cook the dish the day before I want to use it so as to be able to refrigerate and defat it. The flavor only improves with a day of rest.

Please tell us how it turned out!

B

[AKR]

I just made the epicurious recipe

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/rec...

with a few minor adjustments (like a little less butter) and it was FANTASTIC. Thanks for the suggestion, CHers.

If you need a place to get big, thick cut oxtails, try Ottomanellis in the West Village. About $11 for 3 lbs of trimmed, chopped tails. There are enough big chunks there to server as presentation pieces for 2-3 people easily.

AKR

[cobalt123]

I just used a modified recipe from Epicurious - as BeaN did in November 2005. I had no leeks, bay leaves, or parsley and the thyme was ground. I used 3/4 bottle of merlot and the rest of the liquid was low sodium beef broth. For me it was 6 stalks celery sliced in small slices, 1 cup thin slice carrot rounds, 2 medium size white onions, and 2 whole garlic bunches. I cook barley on the side with about 3/4 cup of the soup broth after it has been simmering for an hour. That way I can have the straight soup, add barley at the end to the guest's portion, or add pasta. Seems to make everyone happy to have it with pasta or barley or straight. The meat falls off the bones and it does improve with age.

[paulj]

Any braised beef recipe will work. I often cook meat like this in two stages - first with simple seasonings to get it tender. That then goes in to the fridge. At a later time I take the fat off, saute a variety of vegetables, and cook the meat and broth with additional seasonings.

I think ox tail is best cooked till the 'caps' come off the bones. The meat can be taken off the bones before serving, or you do that at the table.

One time I seasoned the tails with chile spices (lots of ancho, etc), and added a can of black beans. The beans absorbed much of the fat. The result was a rich chili, one of the best I've made.

paulj

[NYCkaren]

I know the Molly Stevens braising book was cookbook of the month here a while back. There's a recipe for oxtails braised in red wine there that's delicious.