Oxtail Stew

OXTAIL STEW! 

I’ve been looking at many articles and have seen many TV shows about oxtail.. which is really beef tail. I decided to make some.

Here is what I used:

1 ½ lbs Oxtail

3 stalks of sliced celery (plus 2 for final stage)

2 peeled/sliced carrots (plus 2 more for final stage)

1 large onion or two small (plus one medium diced for final stage)

¼ cup diced scallions

3 cloves

1 teasp thyme

1 teasp fresh rosemary – chopped roughly

1 tabl soy sauce – for color

2 garlic cloves sliced

3 allspice berries – or you can use ¼ teasp dry – or to taste

¼ teaspoon Herbs de Provence

Dash of hot sauce

Salt

1/3 cup or enough to cover Oxtails for marinating brown sugar

Olive Oil for marinade

¼ cup or so of flour

Handful of golden raisins

¾ cup of San Marzano Tomatoes - diced

Few cups of a good stock – I used turkey stock from Thanksgiving and it was great

Red wine – about ½ cup

Scant amount canola oil for browning

Cut off some of the excess fat from the Oxtails

Rub the Oxtails with dry herbs, brown sugar, garlic and olive oil and place in a zip lock bag Squeeze out extra air and marinate for 4 hrs in the fridge.

..Let Oxtails sit out for about an hour to come to room temp.  ..Dry with paper towels. 

..Heat some Canola oil – nice and hot and add Oxtails to pan – brown on all sides – about 15 min.

…Remove to a side plate and discard all but 1 tablespoon of the oil

…Add celery, carrots, and onion to pan and scrape up the brown bits.

…Add wine and cook down until there is almost no liquid

…Add flour and cook for about 3 min.

…Add stock and soy sauce, diced tomatoes and add more of the herbs if needed  and hot sauce

 Simmer for 2 hours on low - add some more carrots and onion and celery so there are nicely cooked pieces in there and some golden raisins and once your meat is fall off the bone tender –Put in the scallions for the last 10 min.  …serve over mashed potatoes.