cooking @ home

Archive for the ‘Spanish’ Category

©2008 Harry Kenney

What we have here essentially is a Spanish Oxtail Stew featuring Root Vegetables. Not only is it a dish eaten in the south of Spain, but this is a dish that transcends not only geography, but also social classes and time itself. With a few variations this dish could have been eaten in close to this form not only a few hundred years ago, but also two thousand years ago, and even nine millennia ago. Talk about getting in touch with the earth and roots huh? So how did I decide to do this exact dish?

Having done so many Italian and Italian-American recipes lately I’ve felt a great need for change. And a desire to let my taste buds, if not my actual personage, travel to some different distant lands. It was an episode of Dinner: Impossible that got me interested in trying out oxtails. I find it in some ways humorous and in many ways delightful when poor people’s food or “peasant food” becomes trendy cuisine.

To quote About.com: “Cooks around the world have long made use of oxtails with variations on a theme. Today, upscale chefs are rediscovering oxtails to the nostalgic delight of older patrons and the wonder of the younger crowd who consider it an exotic meat.” Indeed, my mother who at 92 still recalls that her father enjoyed oxtails; apparently it was a part of his father and his father’s father’s English roots.

At first then I thought, ah, I’ll make an English version of this dish, partly due to Robert Irvine having brought it to my attention via his television program as well as because of my grandfather. And then I started looking around. And all I can say is “wow”. I mean think about it: oxtail, oxen, animal husbandry, early cultivation … In short, if you want to find a protein, a meat, a dish that goes back to the beginning of man’s civilized history, oxtails have been eaten since before recorded history.

So when researching I found there’s pretty much no ancient culture that doesn’t have an oxtail recipe. There are Chinese recipes, Indian recipes, Greek and Basque recipes. When later countries came into being, they continued eating oxtails, so there are recipes from the UK to South Africa to Burma and beyond. And if we go just a few centuries old, there are many Caribbean recipes too. In short oxtails are a global dish.

So while I initially wanted to make an English dish, I thought I would keep my mind open and see what most appealed to me with so many variations from so many countries available. When I found this one, I knew I just had to do it. Rabo de Toro, literally “Tail of the Bull”, a dish from Spain specifically the Andalusian region, and more specifically having come from the bull fights in Cordoba.

Speaking of history lessons, just as the dish coq au vin is rarely ever made with roosters any more and is today almost always made with chickens so is the case here. Rabo de Toro — unless you happen to be an actual matador — is almost always made today with oxtails. And, just to confuse you even more, oxtails, which did historically come from the ox, pretty much today come from the tails of beef cattle of both genders.

What makes this dish so especially Spanish? And what gives it that twist I was searching for? The answer to both are the ingredients of red bell pepper, paprika and chocolate. Yes chocolate. And what makes this classic recipe in any way mine? Two things. Oddly all the recipes I saw containing root vegetables seemed to neglect one particular one which I can’t imagine would have been originally left out, and so one contribution is my addition of the white turnip along with the traditional carrots and parsnips.

Also the recipes call for a deep, full-bodied red wine. Now as much as my bottle of Portuguese Porto Reserve would have been a fit pairing with this neighboring country dish I found that too expensive a proposition, so I ended up with a combination of both Merlot and American (yes, Taylor’s) Port; the Merlot provided a nice dry backbone while the Port gave it some deeper body and a touch of sweetness which was needed. And at less than half the price of using the Porto Reserve.

I will say one thing if you haven’t figured it out yet: This is a long and I mean long cooking dish. Some might think that great as for the most part you pretty much leave it do it’s thing. Part of my impatience though comes out with four full hours of just the beef cooking, not to mention the prep work or the 45 minutes after for the vegetable cooking was just a long time. But to my delight it was worth it. Delicious.

Btw, as slow cooking and crock pots have made a resurgence in popular recently, yes, this probably would be an excellent choice for cooking in that manner. However, just as I didn’t toss the bulk of the vegetables in until last so they would have body and not get soggy, I would probably suggest doing the same and not adding them to the slow cooker until the last hour.

For those of you particularly squeamish just think of this as beef stew with some interestingly different tastes thrown in — because really that’s what it basically is. And for those of you yearning for something out of the ordinary: here’s a taste of Spain, a dish with an interesting story and history behind it from ancient man to modern bull fights, and a stew containing chocolate — all rolled into one. What more could you want? ¡Olé!

Rabo de Toro – Spanish Oxtail Stew
©2008 Harry Kenney

2 lbs oxtails
1 medium-large yellow onion, diced
1-1/2 medium-sized parsnips, peeled, large dice
1 medium-sized white turnip, peeled, large dice
2 medium carrots, unpeeled (if fresh), large dice
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 celery stalk, finely diced
15 oz of canned diced tomatoes (use fresh only at peak season)
2 tbsps minced garlic (or same amount from fresh cloves)
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp thyme
2 tsps oregano
1/2 tsp cumen (optional)
1-2 medium bay leaves
1 oz unsweetened (bakers) chocolate, sliced down into slivers
* 3 cups beef stock / broth
* 3 cups dry red wine (I used Merlot)
* 1-1/2 cups American (Taylor’s) Port wine
* 8 cups water
salt
pepper

3 baking potatoes to make mashed potatoes

* liquid ingredients marked with asterisk (and to lesser degree the spices not marked with asterisks) the amounts listed all depend on how much evaporation, time cooking, seasoning to your taste, etc. Constantly adding more and more as needed over the long cook. The amounts listed are approximations of the total amounts used over the entire course of the cooking. When starting out, start out with less and add more over time as needed and/or desired, as mentioned in the instructions here.

In a large stewing pot or dutch oven — I used a four quart pot — with heat medium-high begin by browning your oxtails on all sides using plenty of olive oil. I found using long tong work well. This takes about 15 minutes roughly.

Remove the oxtails onto a plate. Into the pot add more oil, most of the onions, most of the celery. Start to sweat. Several minutes in add the minced garlic. Continue to sweat, not to brown. When softened enough, put the oxtails back in adding also 1 cup of dry wine and 1/2 cup of port and one cup of beef stock. Turn heat to high. Scrape bottom to get bits up. Add salt and pepper and oregano. Add as much water as needed to just cover the top of the oxtails. Cover, when it comes to a boil, put flame back down to simmer.

This concept of checking on the stew, giving it a stir, adding more water or wine or stock as required. Bringing it to high heat when you’ve done so, then lowering back to a simmer if basically what you will do for the next four hours. How much of which and what I leave to you. Too much and it’s too rich, too much water and you’ll get watery stew. I would add no more than two cups of water at a time, a cup preferably. Wine the next time, some more stock the next. The amounts listed at the top of the recipe give you an idea of how much should be used during the entire course of the cooking.

After the three hour mark, start testing the softness of the beef. The best way I’ve found is to lift part of it out with a large serving spoon, and test with the end of a steak knife or fork gently. At roughly the four hour mark or the point you most feel the beef is tender, that it is just holding on to the bone barely, take it out, place on a plate and let it cool for about 15 minutes. During this time I leave the lid off the stew and let it continue on simmer, this will reduce the liquid somewhat.

Take the meat completely off the bone. Shread with your fingers or fork and place back into stew. At this point, add all the root vegetables, including the small remainder of onion and celery left over from the start. Add the remaining half of your oregano plus all of your spices including the chocolate. Add more broth, wines and water as needed. Cover, bring to full boil, reduce back to simmer.

You should find the carrots are done first, then the turnips and finally the parsnips in that order, and it should take roughly 45 more minutes of stewing.

Meanwhile, take three baking potatoes, punch three deep rows of holes in them with a fork, two on one side, one on the other and place in microwave for roughly 12 minutes. When done, let cool enough to touch, scoop out, use butter, milk, salt, pepper and make a medium to thick consistency mashed potatoes.

When stew is done, place some mash on the side of your deep bowl and fill the rest with the stew. Because of the richness of the stew including the deep notes of the dark wines used, go the other way and use a sweet blush or white wine as accompaniment. I suggest a White Zinfandel or a Riesling. I know, it’s not exactly Spanish, but it tastes good. Want to keep it Spanish and still sweet? The no-brainer would be go with Sangria; matter of fact that would probably be best.