Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Oxtails...yummm

So this dish comes courtesy of my mother-in-law. It is oxtails. What you’ll need:
Oxtails, 1 tsp curry powder, 1 Tbsp tomato paste, 1 medium onion (chopped), ¼ tsp salt, ¼ tsp pepper, fresh garlic (1-2 cloves minced), 1 tsp lemon juice. The key to great oxtails is making sure you cook them until they are tender and falling off the bone. The meat should essentially melt in your mouth!

Method:
Start by boiling the oxtails (how many is up to you; you’ll need to adjust your seasoning accordingly). There was about 8-10 pieces of oxtails in the picture above, so if you are preparing around the same number I would use about 2 ½ -4 cups of water. The reason I give such a range is, as I am sure you’ve noticed, cup sizes vary from one manufacturer to the next. There should not be too much water in the pot but enough really to just cover the oxtails. You’ll need to boil this down till the water is pretty much gone. I would cook on medium-high for about 45-1hr; again this really depends on the oxtails themselves. Periodically monitor the pot and poke the tails with a fork to check them for softness. You want to add the lemon juice while they boil.

Note: If you notice that the water has gone before the oxtails have become soft then simply add more water until they become soft enough. Remember the oxtails should be effortless to eat/chew.

Next because oxtails have fat, after the water is gone there should be some oil from the meat remaining in the pot (add more oil if necessary). Throw in the chopped onions and fry. Add the garlic, salt, pepper, curry powder and stir. Add the tomato paste (dilute with water) and add about another 1 cup of water. Let this simmer on medium for another 15 mins. The sauce is not thick and there really isn’t a lot of it in the pot. If you find that you have too much water or your sauce is too thick you can do a couple things to rectify this: 1) throw out some of the water (the sauce is just really to coat the oxtails) 2) if too thick dilute with more water until desired consistency.
You can eat this with practically anything you like. I recommend rice, that’s always nice.

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This work by Exotic Lady is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at myexotickitchen.blogspot.com.