How to cook oxtails: recipes

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

What are oxtails? The recipe for preparing a dish from such an unpopular piece of carcass seems to be something incredible and difficult, but is it really so? Yes, there are some nuances here: this is one of the most mobile parts of the body, respectively, the meat here is very tough and sinewy. And yet…

About the benefits of oxtail

The lack of stiffness is also a plus: with prolonged heat treatment, the collagen contained here in large quantities dissolves and makes the meat incredibly tender and soft. In addition, it is very useful for bones, joints and connective tissues.

Oxtail meat has all the beneficial properties of beef, it is rich in iron, vitamins B, PP and E, while the tail is one of the most inexpensive parts of the carcass. That is why oxtails, the recipes for which are very popular in Spain, have always been considered a dish for the poor. But they did not become less tasty.

Spanish oxtail. Photo, recipe and how to serve Rabo de Toro

This is a classic dishSpanish cuisine, which is traditionally prepared from the tails of bulls defeated in bullfighting. But you can cook it from ordinary purchased meat, there is no difference in taste, only the general atmosphere plays a role.

To make Spanish oxtail you will need:

• 3 kg of tails;

• 2 medium onions;

• 5-6 large tomatoes;

• 2-3 carrots;

• 1 tbsp. leeks;

• s alt and pepper, garlic, thyme, bay leaf;

• 1 cup brandy;

• 2.5 cups red wine (dry);

Many novice cooks are immediately frightened by the number of ingredients, but, except for alcohol, all of the above is almost always in every kitchen. When buying oxtails, it is better to choose larger pieces: yes, there is not much meat there, but in the center of each piece there will be a large tubular bone, which is the basis of a delicious dish.

Cooking Spanish oxtail recipe

First of all, you need to prepare the oxtails. The recipe for bullfighters says that they need to be chopped into pieces 2.5 cm thick, it is recommended to ask the butcher about this when buying. Prepared and washed tails are laid out on a baking sheet on top of the foil and sent to a well-heated oven for 20 minutes.

While the tail gets rid of excess fat in the oven and acquires a pleasant golden hue, there is time to prepare the vegetables. Carrots and both types of onions are cut into large pieces and sent to heated oil ina pot or pan with a very thick bottom. Chopped garlic and all spices are added there. The vegetable mixture is cooked over medium heat for 10 minutes with regular stirring. After this time, it's time to add the tomatoes, chopped and peeled. The whole mixture comes to the desired state for another 10 minutes.

It's time to add lightly baked meat and alcohol to the vegetables. After boiling for 10 minutes, pour in water to cover the tails. Then comes the hardest part - the waiting. They are very tasty - oxtails; the recipe is budget and affordable, but bringing them to readiness within 4-4, 5 hours makes you keep looking at your watch.

The dish should not boil, the sauce should only shake slightly, and the meat should languish. Readiness will come when the meat becomes gently melting and will easily move away from the bone. When this happens, you can turn off the stove, let the meat brew for 20 minutes and serve.

Traditional serving of the finished dish

The classic Spanish serving comes down to the following: you need to remove pieces of meat and bay leaf from the finished dish, discard the bones, and rub the whole sauce with a blender into a homogeneous mass. This option is possible, but a sauce with appetizing pieces of vegetables and a more pronounced texture looks much more effective. Traditionally, the dish is served with fried or boiled potatoes or pasta.

Other interesting ways to make tails

Appetizing, he althy and vitamin-rich oxtails, the recipe for which is found in manycuisines of the world, can be prepared not only as an addition to potatoes or pasta. They make excellent rich, sticky and fragrant broths enriched with vitamins and collagen. And what can be prepared from such a broth? Of course, oxtail soup! You can make a recipe for its preparation yourself by adjusting the number and variety of vegetables, adding your favorite spices and herbs, beans, peas, experimenting with types of alcohol. We offer you one of the options.

How to cook oxtail soup: a recipe with a photo of a classic version of the dish

One of the most delicious variations of this rather unusual piece of beef carcass is the classic German soup. Its basis is, as you understand, a bull's tail. The recipe with a photo and a detailed description of the process is presented below.

To make oxtail soup, you will need the following ingredients:

• 1kg oxtail;

• 100g leeks;

• 1 piece onion;

• 1 piece carrots;

• 1 piece parsley root;

• 100g celery root;

• 300g potatoes;

• 2 tbsp. l. flour;

• 100 ml red wine, preferably Madeira;

• marjoram, saffron, rosemary, pepper, s alt, basil;

• vegetable oil;

• water;

• egg white for clearing stock.

Making German oxtail soup

Start cooking soup with the preparation of the main ingredient - oxtail. To do this, the tail, peeled and chopped into pieces, must be scaldedboiling water, and then soak in ice water for an hour.

Fry a well-soaked tail in hot oil, add carrots, onions, parsley and celery, fry vegetables until golden brown. Transfer to a saucepan, add water and potatoes. A traditional German recipe suggests using turnips, but if none is available, potatoes are a great substitute. Cook the soup on the stove for 3-4 hours on a very low heat, it should barely boil.

The taste of the soup can be considered almost ready, but the cloudy broth does not look very appetizing, and regular egg white will help to cope with this problem. To carry out the cleaning procedure, all vegetables and meat are removed from the broth, and beaten egg white is introduced into the boiling broth in a thin stream. After a minute, the curdled egg will take on the remaining foam and lighten the broth to a transparent state. It remains only to strain it through a fine sieve or a layer of cloth.

The prepared clarified broth is returned to the stove to complete the cooking process. Next, add boiled wine to it and bring the mixture to a boil. In a glass of water, you need to dissolve a tablespoon of flour and add it in a thin stream to the boiling broth. Then add meat and vegetables cut into pieces, bring to a boil, sprinkle with herbs and serve.

Oxtail dishes are tasty, fragrant, rich and satisfying. When served correctly, they can become a real decoration of the festive table, and toa skilled housewife will line up for a recipe.