Okay, so I've been a bad mommy to this blog. I've been out of town. Plus, I got food stamps and have yet to find a dumpster that feels right now that I've moved again. I feel like there are fewer things to write about since I'm sticking to cooking tried and true recipes that I've already posted and I just haven't been dumpstering as often.
That all said, here's a nice recipe for the fall and winter that involves very little effort. I have to start by saying that I'm terrified of slow-cookers and crock-pots. Some part of me just doesn't feel comfortable leaving the house for 8 hours with a heated appliance on. Horrific fantasies of my house burning down because I wanted to make a delicious stew run rampant. Still, I do OWN a crock pot, so I decided I should try to use it more often. My way of getting around fire-by-soup anxieties is to use my crock pot at night when I'm sleeping (the idea being that I would hopefully wake up if my house were on fire). It turned out really well, and now I'm excited to actually keep trying it out more and more...If you don't own a crock-pot, most thrift stores will have one, or you can just try to cook the stew using a slow (time) and low (temperature) method of cooking on a stove or in an oven with a dutch oven. There are guides for how to do this online.
OXTAIL STEW
First off: what's oxtail? It's the tail of some type of cattle, typically a cow. You can get it for much cheaper than most other beef. In my case, I dumpstered some. It comes out super tough unless you cook it slow-and-low, which makes it juicier and more tender. Also, cooking oxtail with the bone in is great because the bones provide more flavor for your soup or stew. I'll use oxtail when I make a stock for Vietnamese pho - recipe forthcoming.
Ingredients:
- 2 lbs. oxtail
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 stalk celery, chopped
- 2 carrots, peeled & chopped
- 2-4 whole peeled garlic cloves (depending on how garlic-ie you want it) - 3-4 dried ancho chilis, chopped
- 2 parsnips, peeled & chopped
- 1 turnip, peeled & chopped
- 1 bay leaf
- 1-2 potatoes
- 2 cups of full-bodied red wine
- 1.5 cups chicken or beef stock - you can substitute broth or water if you're out
- Thyme, salt, pepper, & parsley to taste
- A few tablespoons of olive oil
The bottom line is, whatever you have in terms of veggies that would taste good in a stew or that is close to going bad - throw it in there! Also, a word of caution about seasoning - since you're cooking for so long, the dish will really have time for the flavors to meld together, so a little goes a long way in crock pot cooking. Also, if you over-salt, it will just dry out your meat and your veggies, so wait until after everything's done cooking to add the majority of your salt.
Step one: Brown your oxtail in a skillet with a little olive oil.
Step two: THROW EVERYTHING IN YOUR CROCK POT. Leave the oxtail, potatoes, and carrots closer to the bottom. Try to get the liquid covering everything.
Step three: Cover it and leave it revved up for 8-10 hours. You'll know the oxtail is cooked when it easily falls off the bone and the potatoes are cooked all the way through. Try not to take the lid off during this process, since that's what's keeping the hot air in that's doing the cooking.
Step four: If you're health-conscious, there can be a LOT of fatty oil involved in this process. A way to get rid of that is to put your stew in a bowl when it's finished and refrigerate. That will coagulate the fat so it will easily be scooped off the top of the bowl with a sieve or spoon after a few hours chilling. You can remove the bones at this point if you want as well. Reheat whenever and enjoy! It's also possible to freeze this if you make too much to make it last another week or so.
I made this right before a bunch of food was going to go bad. I also knew I'd be meeting up on a climbing trip with some friends. So, I went to their house expecting a fridge to keep it in...only to find that their house had lost power. So, we invited over a bunch of our local buddies with propane camping stoves, cooked it all up, and had a feast! Later that evening, we also made a delicious blueberry-oatmeal crisp on the camping stoves out of the limited amount of food we had. It turned out great!
Items not dumpstered or donated: olive oil, bay leaf, salt & pepper, parsnip, wine
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