Kickin’ Recipes

www.thespiceco.ca www.chefbrianhenry.com Owner of Angle Iron Kitchens & The Spice Co. by Chef Brian Henry Food Editor

GETTING ALL FIRED UP!

Offal rhymes with awful and the irony is that offal is the culinary term used to describe the glandular organs and entrails of animals. Liver, heart, spleen and tripe are various forms of offal and their mention often leads to the loss of one’s appetite. . If eating offal is disturbing to you, I suggest you ease yourself into this by starting at the tail end of things, as tails are categorized as offal but they are actually a muscle. Traditionally oxtails came from oxen which were neutered cattle that were harnessed as beasts of burden and put to work. When their life’s purpose had been filled the oxen were slaughtered and sent to the kitchen. Oxen were prized for their strongly flavoured meat that can be attributed to their muscles being excessively worked and high concentrations of myoglobin in their bloodstream. Today we call oxen steers and commercially available oxtails are harvested from a variety of cattle including veal calves. As we have forgone the oxcart, cattle are no longer being worked as hard resulting in milder flavoured beef tails. Oxtails weigh in around three pounds and are mostly bone as the tail is a continuation of the spine. The bones are held together by long bundles of muscle fibres that require them be cooked slowly by a moist heat method like braising. This slow cooking process lets the bones release their gelatin creating a delicious broth with a notable lush texture on the palate.

OXTAIL SOUP

INGREDIENTS: 1 oxtail (3 pounds) sliced in 1 inch thick rounds

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

3 tbsp cooking oil

1 ½ cups spanish onions, peeled and diced

½ cup carrots, peeled and diced

6 cups water

2 tbsp tomato paste

1 bay leaf

1/2 teaspoon thyme

3 cloves

2 sprigs parsley

½ cup port or red wine

salt and pepper

A PIECE OF TAIL

bottomed soup pot over medium-high heat. Remove the oxtail from pot and set aside. Lower the temperature to medium and cook the onions and carrots together until the onions are a golden brown. Stir in the water, tomato paste, and the seasonings tied in a sachet. Return the oxtail to the pot and simmer over medium-low heat for about three hours or until meat is fork tender. Skim off any surface fat and remove the sachet. Stir in the port and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately with fresh baked bread.

Optionally, you may choose to remove the meat from bones, and cut it into bite-size pieces before serving it in the soup. Serves 4 people.