How to Cook Oxtail Soup

Serves: 4

Preparation time: overnight

Cooking time: 3 1/2 hours

Ingredients needed to make Oxtail Soup:

• 2 lb 12 oz oxtail, fat trimmed off and chopped into smaller chunks
• 1 tbsp all purpose flour
• 1 large carrot, coarsely chopped
• 1 onion, coarsely chopped
• 3 thyme sprigs
• 1 celery stalk, coarsely chopped
• 2 tsp tomato puree
• 1 bay leaf
• 10 black peppercorns
• 2 ½ pints beef stock
• 10 ½ fl oz red wine
• 3 tbsp olive oil

Cooking instructions for Oxtail Soup:

• Drizzle oil in a large casserole dish and throw in the oxtail chunks.
• Brown them, in batches, over high flame until they are evenly seared and transfer them to a plate.
• Dump the roughly chopped veggies in the casserole and sauté them for about 5 minutes, stirring at times.
• Drop the thyme sprigs into it, followed by the peppercorns and stir them all together, along with the tomato puree until well mixed.
• Cook the mixture for a minute and add a splash of wine to it.
• Continue to simmer the mixture for several minutes, until bubbles start popping up and dump the browned oxtail back to the casserole dish.
• Empty the cups of beef stock into the simmering mixture and heat it until it begins to boil.
• Reduce it to a simmer over slow flame and put a lid on before cooking it for about 3 hours or until the oxtail is cooked enough to come off from the bone.
• Lift the cooked oxtail to a plate, using tongs and set aside until they are cook enough to handle.
• Pass the cooking liquid through a fine mesh sieve into a separate bowl and set aside to cool it too.
• Once cooled down, pull the meat from the bones into fine shreds and throw away the bones.
• Pile the shreds into a bowl, place a lid on top and leave it in the fridge overnight, along with the bowl of strained liquid in the fridge, overnight.
• Next day, skim off the fat from the surface of the liquid and reheat it in pan until it begins to simmer.
• Spoon in 3 tbsp of the simmering soup into a bowl and stir in the flour until they form a smooth paste.
• Whisk the paste into the soup until well combined and continue to cook it for another couple of minutes or until it thickens slightly.
• Stir in the oxtail meat into the simmering soup and ladle it into serve bowls.
• Serve hot.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons