X - oXtail

Please tell me you have had braised Oxtail.

This is a little different then Osso Buco, which most people have had...hopefully. Oxtail is, as you could surmise, Beef. *duh*. Osso Buco is Veal. Yes. The age matters. Quite a lot.

My main point here, though, is the whole dish. The Braised Oxtail. The beauty behind what it's like to take something that is quite literally a piece of Tail (!) and turn it into one of the most glorious most complex (aside from consomme) flavor stories (god I hate that term, but there it is) in the whole culinary world.

I Love Staub.

It's so deceptively simple. You sear the meat in a cast iron pan. You know the kind, Le Cruset or Staub make beautiful pots for this. You have to sear in the flavor. And then build from there. Every level adding on from the one below it. The onions and bacon. The tomatoes and wine. The Herbs and garlic. Everything added at just the right moment, to create a balance yet add their interest.

And then you slow braise the hell out of it. Pushing the flavor into the meat for hours on end. Forcing one of the cheapest cuts of meat to taste like gods gift to kings. So hearty. So fulfilling. So wonderful with either a beautiful Bordeaux or a zippy Gewurztraminer.

This kind of food is what I could happily eat every day of my life.

And weigh a whole lot more then I do.