When I first saw this recipe, I thought oxtail was, literally, tail from an ox. And I wondered, "Where am I going to get oxtail?"
And then yesterday, I saw oxtail in the supermarket. It's actually cut up beef tails.
I decided that it was too much fat and too little meat for the price, but I still wanted to try the recipe. So I cut up some chuck roast to use instead.
So this is a modified version of Braised Oxtail, without the oxtail.
The original recipe calls for aging the meat in the fridge for 3 to 5 days. This meat was on clearance sale, so I aged it 1 day.
Trim the fat off the chuck roast as you cut it up. Add black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder.
Brown the meat in a little butter in a cast iron skillet. Remove the meat, and deglaze with red wine.
Return the meat and add beef broth, garlic cloves, fresh cilantro. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, simmer for a couple of hours.
Then remove the meat, reduce the liquid, and add Wondra flour to thicken into gravy.
Serve over rice.
This is essentially, beef tips over rice, but had I used oxtail, then it would be braised oxtail!
Ox tails are a radically different cut of meat than chuck roast. Each is beautiful in its own way. The ox tail makes a powerful statement by contributing what appears to be fat but is actually collagen, which gives the dish a unique flavor that only ox tails (or other collagen-rich cuts of meat) can contribute.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't aware of that... gonna have to try real ox tails at some point... It WAS good beef tips though!
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