Tuesday 20 October 2009

Chinese Braised Oxtail

One might have thought that after the meatiness of the faggots, I'd balance it out with a somewhat lighter and vegetable-laden meal. Not so. Various tempting blog posts, like that of this and this, made me crave oxtail and it's fork-tender, fatty, gelatinous goodness. Having only ever cooked oxtail once before in a very British manner, I decided to go entirely the other way this time, and plumped for some Chinese flavours.

Of course, oxtail requires some long and slow cooking. Last weekend saw me sling some essential flavourings into a big stock pot. The browned oxtails went in next, and it was just left to do it's thing for 3 or 4 hours. The flat filled up with the warm and spicy smells of star anise, cloves and ginger and I was well rewarded for such little effort. The meat was soft, interspersed with unmistakably gooey tendon. My poor knife was unable to negotiate around the funny star-shaped bones, and in the end I picked it up gnawing away, making sure I got every morsel off. It was a rather grotesque sight to behold.

It's best to cook the oxtail the day before, so that you can easily lift the fat out but this is not essential - you just need rather a lot of patience to spoon the fat out instead.

Chinese Braised Oxtail

Serves 2 generously

4 large pieces of oxtail
8 shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated in hot water
4 cloves of garlic, bashed roughly
6 slices of ginger
4 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine
2 tbsp black vinegar
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns
1 1/2 star anise
2 cloves
2 dried chillis
1 pint of beef stock
2 spring onions

In a large frying pan, season the oxtail with salt and pepper and brown. Remove and place in a big stock pot. In the frying pan, fry the chillis, garlic and ginger in the fat that was rendered from the oxtail. Add to the pot. Add the rest of the ingredients except the spring onions. If the stock doesn't cover the oxtail, add more. Simmer for 2 hours on a low heat. Then take the mushrooms, cut the stems off and add to the pot, along with the mushroom liqour, taking care not to add any grit. Braise for a further hour.

At this stage, you can leave it to cool and put it in the fridge to lift some of the fat out. Otherwise, take the oxtails out, and strain the liquid into a smaller saucepan, picking the mushrooms out. If you're doing this right away, spoon out as much fat as you can. Simmer this liquid fairly rapidly so that it reduces into a thicker sauce. This can take up to 45 minutes. Add the oxtails and the mushrooms back in, and simmer for a further 15 minutes, turning the oxtails around if they're not covered by the sauce. Serve, garnishing with spring onions cut diagonally, with some steamed rice and stir-fried spinach or steamed pak choi. Have wet wipes handy...

18 comments:

Helen @ World Foodie Guide said...

Nice! My dad would definitely approve of this. I wish my parents were staying with me on their visit to London. So far I've only had one home-cooked dish - chicken, chestnuts & Chinese mushroom stew.

Manuel said...

tremendous flavours right there....the mushrooms look amazing it has to be said....

The Ample Cook said...

What a brilliant idea to 'Chinese up' oxtail. I bet it smelt divine when it was cooking. Fabulous.

aforkfulofspaghetti said...

Yum! I think I'm going to be eating a lot of oxtail soon, thanks to your recipe and Helen's Jamaican-stylee version.

Kerri said...

Sounds great and interesting to see oxtail cooked in a different style. It's not as cheap as it was last year, I noticed which I'm assuming is because it's becoming more popular. Will be interesting to see if it starts appearing on TV shows and in magazines.

Browners said...

Excellent stuff. You've inspired me to make this for Tupperware Friday. Hope I do it justice.

gastrogeek said...

Naughty but nice! I've never cooked oxtail before, this looks like a fab recipe.

Food Urchin said...

Wow at first glance, I thought you'd gone offal crazy. OK the post is about oxtail, fine. Then I spied brains soaking in a bowl. Woah! But then of course, further inspection revealed that they were simply mushrooms. I need my eyes tested. Sounds and looks delicious.

Dan said...

Love Oxtail, am trying to imagine what it tastes like with the Chinese flavours - it sounds lovely.

ginandcrumpets said...

Oh wow, that looks good. Glad I'm not the only one picking up bones and gnawing the last little bits of meat off them.

ginandcrumpets said...

Oh wow, that looks good. Glad I'm not the only one picking up bones and gnawing the last little bits of meat off them.

Mr Noodles said...

Star anise - my favourite aroma ! Another great recipe - I think your dish would go really well with 'fensi' (aka mung bean vermicelli or glass noodle) - the noodle would soak up the sauce nicely.

Helen said...

Delicious! I bet the smell drove you insane!! I want this NOW. I think the gnawing is an essential part of eating the oxtail - get involved, that's what I say. I don't know why but I can't stop laughing at that picture of shiitake mushrooms; I really need to get some sleep.

LexEat! said...

These look delicious and I'll know for myself in about 1 hour! Using your recipe my oxtail has been in the slow cooker for 9 hours and I'm now rapidly reducing the sauce. The smells coming from the kitchen are killing me!

pigpigscorner said...

Wow, love the colour and the flavours!

Just Cook It said...

Oh. Yum.

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Hengki Budi Prasetyo Blog said...

Of course, spiced oxtail is very delicious as a friend of rice. I have been waiting you show me a fried rice recipt, coz in my country fried oxtail is friend of fried rice.