Oxtail stew in tomato red wine sauce 西班牙牛尾煲

Another one of my favorite dishes to cook. I usually make this dish when I am hosting dinner parties at home since it is well liked by most of my friends. It goes well with almost everything: pasta, rice, garlic bread....etc. It is also a good winter dish for thanksgiving dinner/X'mas dinner too. Who doesn't like oxtails right? This dish calls for a lot of ingredients. But don't let this overwhelm you! It's actually not hard to make. It just takes sometime because it's oxtail takes hours to cook to tender and fall off the bone.

Ingredient:

-2lbs Oxtail
-1 medium onion, diced
-2 medium carrorts, diced
-3 celery stalk, diced
-3 baking potato
-15oz of canned diced tomatoes (use fresh only at peak season)
-2 tbsps miced garlic
-2-3 medium bay leaves
-1 small bunch parsley, chopped (optional)
-2 cups red wine (dry red wine)
-1 can beef stock
-1 canned tomato paste
-1 tin water
-salt and pepper
-sugar to taste
-four for dusting
-oil for frying

Procedures - let the fun begins....

1. Season the oxtail with salt and pepper and then dust with flour


2. heat a large pan or casserole that will later hold all the meat, heat and fry the oxtail in batches until well browned. Remove and set aside


3. add a little more oil to the pan/casserole, add the onion, carrorts, celery and potato. Fry over medium heat for 2 minute, add in the garlic and bay leaves, fry for another 5 minute, stirring continuously so not to burn


4. Remove the potato from the pan and return the oxtail from step 2, add the wine, tomatoes, and broth, water, and season with salt, pepper and sugar to taste


5. Bring to boil, cover and place in the preheated over (350 degree). Cook for 2 1/2-3 hours or until the meat is very tender and starts to fall off the bone. If you do not want to use over, you can use stove instead.


6. add in the remaining potato during the last hour and let it cook for 1 hour.
   
   
   
   

Journey to cooking & living

My passion for cooking can trace back to when I was a child. My grandma is a great cook and so are all my aunts. I was raised in a family in which great emphasis was placed on home-cooking and delicious food. As a kid, I followed my grandma around the kitchen. Every so often, my grandma would made different types of sophisticated chinese dishes and chinese dim sum. I would beg her to teach me and "help" her out by making a few. Those were my earliest experiences working in the kitchen.

After I moved to the states, I took on the home-cook position at my dad’s house as I had to cook for my little step-sisters and my step-mom. And once again when I was in college cooking for my roommates. I always knew that I can cook and I enjoy working in the kitchen. However, I did not get overly passionated about it until maybe half way through my career as an auditor. Working under the long hours and stress of an auditor, I started cooking again as a way to release stress. I have been able to try making different dishes and even starting baking. The more I cook the more I am enthusiastic about it. I found myself spending more and more time researching for recipies , taking down notes as I cook, and even spending more time shopping at grocery stores.

By starting this blog, I hope I can share my recipies with those who also have a passion for cooking. This blog will also record the interesting dinning experiences in restaurants I tried. I hope my creations and experiences would also inspire others, who thinks like me, the pleasures of the table are infinite.