Tag Archives: stocks

Got me some tail

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I just got the best book for Christmas.  I asked my brother-in-law and sister-in-law for a small paperback about cooking the odd bits of an animal, and what they got me was a gorgeous hard cover called “Odd Bits – how to cook the rest of the animal,” by Jennifer McLagan.

Odd bitsI had taken it out of the library before and tried to memorize parts of it, but luckily John and Janet rescued from my own frugality so that now I can actually cook from it.

Considering my blog interests, I should have taken the plunge and nabbed this book a long time ago.  But even if I didn’t cook dangerously and only ate chicken fingers (which sounds like adventurous animal parts, but…) I would still love reading this book.  It blends food history, with culture, with storytelling, with beautiful photography.  Love it.

Anyway, the ironic thing is that two nights before I received the book, I cooked the most dangerous cow part I’ve cooked to date without its help, which isn’t really saying much since the author describes how to prepare brains and udders and testicles and eyelashes.  Okay, maybe not eyelashes.  But after reading through what I could have been doing, I felt comparatively lame looking back on what I had done.  I cooked oxtail.

Thanks http://goates-legacy.blogspot.ca/

Thanks http://goates-legacy.blogspot.ca/

When my blog fingers start to get itchy, I’m always surprised at how easily it is to stumble across a food that’s blog worthy.  I always think to myself, “Well, better get myself down to T&T,” Toronto’s grocery store chain catering to global food interests, which would take at least two hours to do round-trip, and then I walk down my street to a local shop and find something that saves me the trouble.  I think I’ve only been to T&T once, but I probably think about it at least every week.  Toronto is awesome.

Anyway, I waltzed down to Rowe Farms with my stroller and found some nice locally raised oxtail.  Sure, I thought, “ew,” to myself, but I also knew that many cultures enjoy oxtail and so I shouldn’t be a chicken about it.  I tried not to look at doggy tails on the way home and Googled, “very best ox tail recipe,” which is often my strategy for finding good recipes.  Here’s the first blog recipe I came across:

Slow Cooker Caribbean Oxtails

  • 1 bunch scallions, chopped
  • 6 large cloves garlic, chopped
  • 3 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
  • 1 teaspoon ground allspice
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon crushed habanero pepper
  • 4 pounds oxtails
  • 1 large onion, thinly sliced
  • 6 sprigs fresh thyme
  • 2 cups chicken broth or water

Directions:  In a small bowl, mix the scallions, garlic, ginger, allspice, salt and habanero pepper together.  Rub the spice mix all over the oxtails, marinate for at least one hour to overnight.

IMG_2731Place the sliced onion on the bottom of the slow cooker.  Place the thyme sprigs on top, then the oxtails.  Pour the broth over the oxtails, cover and cook on high for 6 hours.  IMG_2733When the oxtails are cooked, remove them from the slow cooker.  Remove the thyme stems from the liquid.  With a blender or food processor, carefully puree the sauce, then return it to the slow cooker, or pour it into a serving dish.  Return the oxtails to the sauce.

IMG_2738Results:  My house smelled delicious!  If you don’t cook but want to pretend like you do, make this to distribute the aroma through your house, order in, and secretly pitch the oxtail.  Everyone will think you’re a star.  If you decide to serve the oxtail though, people might guess that you’re not a culinary god/goddess.  Full disclosure – we weren’t in fine form for food sampling because we all had a touch of the flu on Christmas Eve this year, but I decided to cook it anyway before it went bad.  I tried a bite or two trying to be an impartial-yet-slightly-nauseous food scientist.  The seasoning was amazing, but the consistency of the oxtail wasn’t stellar.  It was a little like second-rate chicken wings – fatty and chewy without much meat.  I tried it again a few days later and my new frame of festive, healthy mind improved the result, but I still wouldn’t crave them.  Rating:  1 Yum

But the good news…  The good news is that I separated the meat and bones from the liquid (which was runnier than the “sauce,” impression the recipe gives) and used it as a rich stock for my famous roasted cream of mushroom soup, which might actually be Epicurious’ famous roasted cream of mushroom soup.  This rich, hearty base melded perfectly with the mushrooms, and I could use less cream due to the improved consistency over chicken stock.  Winner.  Here’s the bonus recipe:  Apologies that I forgot to take pictures.

Oxtail Roasted Cream of Mushroom Soup

Wine Pairing:  My favourite wine website suggests that Sauvignon Blanc pairs perfectly with mushroom soup, so I’ll go with the top-rated Robert Mondavi Fumé Blanc 2009, Napa Valley, selling for $22.95 in Ontario.

Mondavi

Skeletons make great lamb soup

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I am still on the fence about the title of this post.  I considered calling it, “Boners,” because I’ve been reading about how to publicize what I’m doing and I thought maybe that word would be very search engine friendly.  My mom and father-in-law have been reading my posts, though, so in the end I decided to give it a PG rating, although I told you the story about boners because I’m not giving up on the idea that perverts who also like to cook will find it as long as I throw the word in there somewhere.  And now I’ve used the word twice!

 Anyway.  Last week I had a friend over for dinner – she’s the one who ate the alligator bites as the appetizer.  I wanted to make something special for her for the main, so I was browsing and found a Jamie Oliver recipe for barbequed leg of lamb with thai green spices.  I cooked it exactly according to his recipe, and it was delicious and cooked just to a nice pink level of juiciness. 

 Now you can’t just grab a lamb leg at my grocery store, but I thought it would be a good excuse to venture out of my neighborhood to find a real butcher.  I was successful, and will be returning to Vince Gasparro’s Meat Market (like a real butcher I don’t think they have a website), where they were very friendly and knowledgeable.  While I was there at the counter of the real butcher he asked whether or not I wanted the extra lengths of bones he had just sawed off so that the leg would fit in my pan.  Huge apologies to vegetarians reading, because writing that almost disgusts me too.  Without pausing, I answered, “yes please,” even though I have never cooked anything with bones in my life.   This blog has made me cook really differently than I used to, though, because now cooking challenges me to find tasty uses for things I normally would have ignored.  Kind of a good way to be.  I swear the next time I go out for chicken wings I’m going to ask them to take the bones home in a doggy bag.  Dare me?

 So making lamb stock and soup from actual bones is not really dangerous cooking, but I’m including it because in the past, I always thought, “why wouldn’t you just always use purchased chicken or veg stock?  It’s cheap and easy.”  Well you know what?  Making stock from bones is cheaper and easier!  Although it takes more time (but no effort).  And apparently, bone broth is high in easily digestible protein that also assists with calcium and digestive health.  Also, when you have complete control over your stock you can remove the fat layer and make soup without added salt.  Here are the recipes and methods I used, although I made a different soup from the ones listed on the stock site.

 Lamb Stock

  • Put lamb bones in a slow cooker and cover with about 1” of water
  • Add 1tbsp vinegar (I used flavoured rice vinegar)
  • Turn slow cooker on low and let it go for 12-24 hours.  Mine went for about 20
  • Strain stock into bowl through a cheesecloth.  Add back any pieces of meat you can find if you like
  • Put stock into fridge until you need it, or freeze it in containers.  Pick off solidified fat layer when cold

 

 

When I picked mine up cold from the fridge I thought I had wrecked it, because it looked like jello…

…but when I googled, “my stock looks like jello,” I found this website that told me that congratulations, that was a good thing, and that now I had just proven why vegetarians don’t eat jello, because gelatin all jello comes from animals.  It turned to soup when I heated it again and made up this tasty lamb soup recipe based on a number of recipes I browsed.  Mine was heavy on sausage, but amounts are flexible.  Please find the freedom in modifying the combination of ingredients to your own taste.

Protein Power Lamb Soup

 

  • Homemade lamb stock, above (enough to fill a large pot)
  • 2tbsp olive oil
  • Lamb sausage
  • 1 onion, peeled and chopped
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 peeled, diced sweet potato
  • A few big handfuls of chopped kale
  • About 300mL white kidney beans (half a large can)
  • 1 healthy tsp thyme
  • Salt and pepper to taste.  I found the homemade stock quite bland at first, but I think I’m just used to the great volumes of salt in commercial brands

 Heat oil in a pan over med-high heat, while re-heating your stock in a large pot over high heat at the same time.  Add onions and garlic to pan, heating until onions are translucent, 2-3mins.  Add sausage until all pink is gone and liquids have been released, about 5-7mins.  When stock is bubbling, drain fat from pan contents and add it to the pot, and then add remaining ingredients.  Bring to a boil before lowering heat to a gentle bubble, putting the lid on, allowing a low simmer for 1-2 hours.  Enjoy!

 Rating:  3 yums, as long as you like lamb