Hawaiian Style Oxtail soup
We went grocery shopping last week for the second time after the shelter-in-place order. There are more ingredients available than the first time, but some ingredients like chicken and individual portions of pork were all sold out. I was happy to find there were 2 vacuum sealed oxtail meat packages still left so I decided to use them for something (I like this vacuum sealed meat when you can’t go grocery shopping often.)
I usually cook oxtail in a stew with carrots, onions, celery, and tomato. But this time I tried something different: Hawaiian style oxtail soup! The soup is seasoned simply, only with salt, and served with ginger and soy sauce on the side. It’s served topped with cilantro and chopped green onion, and eaten with white rice. It’s important to remove the gamey taste from the meat, since you don’t add spices to this soup and it’s seasoned with only salt. It takes 2 days of cooking but I think it’s worth it!
先週、家の前のスーパーに2回目の買い出しに行ったところ、shelter-in-placeが発令した直後よりも多少品揃えは回復していましたが鶏肉や小分けの豚肉など調理しやすい食材は売り切れていました。その中でも真空パックにされた牛テールが2パック売れ残っていたため購入してみました。(真空パックにされた肉は長持ちするので頻繁に買い出しに行けないこのような状況のときに重宝しています)
普段は玉ねぎ、人参、セロリやトマトなどでシチューにすることが多いのですが、今回はハワイアンオックステールスープにしてみました。下処理を念入りにして臭みをしっかりと取り除き、基本の味付けは塩のみ。仕上げにパクチーとネギをたっぷり乗せて、サイドに生姜のすりおろしと醤油を添えてご飯とともに提供します。作るのに2日はかかりますがそれだけの価値のある味に仕上がるはずです!
Oxtail soup (Servings 4)
Oxtail 2.5 lb (1.25kg)
Ginger a few slices
Green part of green onion (You can substitute with celery leaves)
Garlic 4 pieces (Skin on)
Sake 1 cup (dry white wine should work, too)
Kelp approximately 1.5 inch square (optional)
Salt around 1 Tablespoon
Toppings
Cilantro (chopped roughly)
Green onion (sliced thinly)
Grinded black pepper
On the side
Soy sauce 1 Tablespoon per person
Ginger (grate) 1/4 per person
Cooked rice
Rinse oxtail with cold water and put into a large bowl.
Cover oxtail with fresh cold water and leave 1 hour in the fridge. (If you don’t have space in the fridge, add some ice cubes into the water and leave it on the counter)
Change water and repeat this twice more (around 3 hours in total). This process removes the blood from the bone.
Drain water, place oxtail in a large pot and cover with fresh water.
Cook with high heat until it starts boiling. After the water starts to boil, keep cooking for 10 minutes more. These steps remove the gaminess from the oxtail.
Drain water and rinse off oxtail with running water, and remove any pieces sticking to the meat.
In a large pot, combine oxtail, some slices of ginger, garlic, green onion, sake, and water to cover the meat.
Turn the heat to high and bring to boil. Reduce the heat to low, let the water slightly simmer and cook for 5-6 hours until the meat almost falls off from the bone. (If you cook with high heat, you’ll lose umami from the meat) While simmering, the water will evaporate. Add more water to cover the meat. Remove green part of onion or celery leaves after they get wilted.
After 5-6 hours of simmering, add kelp. Let the stock cool down, then put in the fridge and keep overnight. If you want to cool down the stock quickly, prepare ice water in a large bowl and put the pot into the ice water, and then put it into the fridge.
The day after, you’ll see a lot of fat that turned solid on top of the broth. Scoop out 2/3 of the fat. (I simmer this fat in a small pot, remove liquid out and strain with a tea colander. This is beef fat. It can be used for cooking other dishes, so I keep in the freezer. See the pictures below)
Before you serve, heat the broth and oxtail, remove ginger slices and kelp, and season with salt.
Sprinkle cilantro, chopped green onion and ground black pepper on top of the soup and oxtail. Serve with grated ginger and soy sauce on the side for dipping the meat or to add to the soup. Serve with white rice!
Pictures to make beef fat