Oxtail stew recipe | Jamie Oliver soup and stew recipes (2024)

FAQs

What makes stew more flavorful? ›

Alternate way to thicken stew gravy: Remove the oxtails/vegetables, leaving the liquid in the pot. Make a cornstarch slurry in a small bowl (1 tablespoon cornstarch + 1 tablespoon water, mixed until combined). Stir mixture into stew liquid and simmer until gravy thickens, about 5 minutes.

Why is it more expensive to make an oxtail dish now? It's simple supply and demand. Each cow only has around six pounds of viable oxtail to go around, compared to the other 400 plus pounds of viable cuts you can get from the rest of the cow.

Fill with enough water to cover oxtails and place over high heat. Bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to medium. Cook oxtails until tender, 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

But the liquid itself should not be thick in the same way that gravy is thick. So skip the roux, and don't bother dusting the meat with flour or cornstarch before browning, either, as some recipes will suggest. That will just interfere with getting a good sear on the meat, and gum up the stew with unneeded starch.

For most types of stew, it takes time to develop great flavor. Stew uses collagen-rich, tough cuts of meat, which need at least two hours to break down. If you try to rush it and boil the stew, the muscle fibers will shrink and become tough. So give yourself a few hours to let it do its thing.

Put the meat in the oil and sear each side for a couple of minutes. Browning your oxtails will not cook the meat. Instead, it will enhance its color and aroma by caramelizing its exterior. Browning beef oxtails in a hot skillet before braising will also add rich depth and flavor to the meat.

There is a good amount of fat and collagen that melt into your dishes as oxtail cooks, which will give a wonderful round texture to sauces and that slightly sticky feel to the meat. And the bonus flavor from the bone marrow that will cook into your dishes make this cut one to really get to know and not be afraid of!

By soaking and blanching the oxtail before cooking any impurities are removed. To cook: Oxtail requires long, slow cooking to produce tender, succulent meat. It should be cooked for a minimum of 3 hours for the best results.

Different versions of oxtail soup exist: Korean; Chinese; a fried/barbecued oxtail combined with soup variation which is a popular dish in Indonesia where it is called as sop buntut; an ethnic dish of the American South which traces its lineage back to the pre-revolutionary war era; and a thick, rich, gravy-like soup ...

What nationality eats oxtail soup? ›

Indonesian oxtail soup (sop buntut) is the most venerated and loved. Like its Western soupy counterpart it features diced oxtail in a clear but rich beef broth, chopped carrots, celery and potato, but with signature Asian flavours of ginger, coriander, lime and chilies as well.

Oxtail soup was first invented in the 17th century and was originated by French Huguenots and Dutch immigrants. At that time, they formulated oxtail soup using the basic ingredients of oxtail. While in Indonesia as well, oxtail soup has been created into a dish that is full of the flavors of the archipelago.

If you cook meat at too high of a temperature in your slow cooker, you're likely to overcook it. When you cook your food slowly at a lower temperature, you unlock the magic of slow cooking. Some of the best cuts of meat for slow cookers are tougher cuts like chuck roast or oxtail.

While it's not absolutely necessary to brown the oxtails before stewing them, it is highly recommended. Browning meat results in caramelization which greatly enhances the flavor of the finished stew.

There are flavors in tomatoes that are alcohol-soluble, so adding red wine along with tomato paste also helps to enhance beef stew." Laurence has a few other tricks I've borrowed to create the best beef stew, including adding Worcestershire, which gets a serious umami punch from anchovies.

Personally I would add as many aromatics and flavor enhancing substances that I like. If the stew is already finished, then you can sauté onions, garlic peppers, celery and carrots then add them to the stew. I would also add some herbs and finally salt and pepper to taste.

Things like cinnamon, turmeric, curry powders, fresh ground peppercorns, sage, tarragon and dill can all pick up where you left the salt out. Allow yourself some discovery. Without the added sodium, herbs and spices can offer a different depth of flavor especially if you grind them up yourself.