Tomato-Braised Oxtail Pasta

Oxtail is one of my favorite cuts of beef. It's still called oxtail, though it no longer refers specifically to the tail of an ox, but all cattle. When you slow cook it, in soup or by braising, the meat becomes extremely tender (and flavorful, being so bony), with delicious melty gelatin.


If you've never had oxtail, give it a try. If you've only had it in soup, try braising it. Typically I braise oxtail Chinese style, with soy sauce as the base. But it's equally delicious using a more Mediterranean method, such as the one I'm sharing here.

When you purchase oxtail at the grocery store, it'll usually come pre-cut into several chunks, in roughly 2-pound packages. Select packages that have meatier chunks, with fewer small-boned pieces. The muscle should look as all good beef cuts look -- a nice red, not pink or dark or spotted. If you're in an Asian grocery store, the oxtail will sometimes be available whole; have the butcher cut one tail into pieces for you.


This is a good dish to prepare ahead of time, because the flavors only improve with time, and keeping it in the fridge overnight makes fat removal easier.

Tomato-Braised Oxtail Pasta (a variation on Pioneer Woman's Short Ribs in Tomato Sauce recipe)

Ingredients

• 2 lbs ox tail, cut into pieces
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed or minced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 28oz can whole tomatoes
• 1 14oz can tomato sauce
• 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/4 tsp thyme
• salt and pepper, to taste

Method

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees.
2. Generously season the oxtail pieces with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Brown the oxtail, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate.
3. Toss the garlic and onions into the pot. Cook, stirring, for two minutes, then add tomatoes, tomato sauce, sugar, wine, red pepper flakes, and thyme. Combine.
4. Carefully place the oxtail back into the pot, covering the pieces with as much of the sauce as possible. Cover the pot and place it onto the middle rack in the oven. Cook for about 4 hours, at which time the meat should be very tender and will separate from the bone at the slightest provocation.  Taste and add salt and pepper if necessary.
5. If you're ready to serve, use a spoon to remove as much of the accumulated oil as possible (one of those fat separators might also work). Or you can remove the oxtail from the pot, place them in a separate container, and refrigerate. Do the same with the pot of sauce, though you can keep the sauce in the same pot. After a few hours, the fat will be hardened and easily removed. Then reheat the sauce with the saved oxtail in it.
6. Serve over your favorite long pasta, with chopped fresh parsley to garnish if you desire, and parmesan cheese.

Chicken in Guinness Red Sauce

I once found myself sitting in the Guinness factory in Dublin, Ireland, after taking the tour.  I don't know about these days, but more than a decade ago, you could sit in their little factory pub after the tour and drink pint after pint of Guinness for free.  For my friends, this made the price of admission well worth it.  As for me ... well, I nursed my one pint of Guinness for a long, long time.  By the time we left, I'd probably drunk about a quarter of it.



I don't think I've made any secret of the fact that I'm not a fan of alcohol.  It's not a judgmental thing; it's a I'm-pretty-sure-I'm-allergic thing.  Once, in college (of course), having drunk what to another person would be a moderate amount of alcohol (two shots and two beers), I broke out in splotchy redness all over.  Not to mention beet-red flushing after just a few swallows of wine.  Or the fact that after a few sips, any alcohol simply tastes like poison.  So while I often regret the fact that I can't drink socially, sticking out like a sore thumb, I know my limits.

Luckily, alcohol in food doesn't bother me.  In fact, I'm a huge fan of using it in cooking.  If you saw my full liquor cabinet you'd never think that I any kind of issue.  You might even think me a bit alcohol obsessed.  Of course, what I know is that it's all used for my big passion -- food!



This chicken in Guinness red sauce recipe is probably my favorite Crock Pot recipe of all time.  It's not just that it's simple (which it is, ridiculously so).  It's not just that it's delicious.  It's also that it doesn't look or taste like it came out of a slow cooker.  You know how some dishes, by either a certain kind of flavor or a certain kind of look, just has that Crock Pot feel?  This isn't one of them.  In my opinion, at least.

I use bone-in chicken thighs.  Thighs are my favorite part of the chicken -- they're tender and flavorful.  I like using bone-in pieces because, just like making stock, when you cook it for that long, it adds an extra dimension of flavor.  I also keep the skin on, then remove them and skim off the fat from the surface after the dish is done cooking.  But I think this recipe would be good no matter what you use.  If you want to use boneless, skinless chicken breasts, more power to you.  After cooking, the meat will be tender and falling off the bone at the slightest provocation.



The sauce is simply tomato paste, Guinness, and the juice from some green olives.  It's incredible how, after hours of cooking and simmering with the juices from the chicken, this turns into a sauce that's complex and delicious.  The olives don't turn to mush, but are soft while still maintaining their olivey-ness.  Their sharpness and tang, however, definitely mellows into the sauce.

I like to serve this chicken on top of a long pasta like spaghetti, but other starches such as rice or potatoes would probably work as well.  I've often doubled the recipe with great success.

Chicken in Guinness Red Sauce

Ingredients

• 4-6 chicken pieces (I like bone-in thighs)
• 1 6oz can tomato paste
• 3/4 cup Guinness (or other dark beer)
• 4oz green olives along with juice (about 24 olives + juice)
• salt and pepper, to taste

Method

1. If you like, wash and pat dry the chicken.  I don't unless they're really bloody or dirty for some reason.  Season the chicken with salt, pepper, or any other preferred spices -- paprika, garlic salt, etc.  Err on the side of underseasoning; if it needs more after it's cooked, you can add it then.  Place the chicken pieces in the slow cooker as evenly as possible.
2. Mix the tomato paste with the Guinness and pour on top of the chicken.
3. Add the olives and their juice on top.
4. Cook on low for 6-8 hours (I've gone as long as 12 and it was fine, but not as ideal), or high for 3-4 hours.
5. Taste and adjust for seasoning, then serve hot on top of pasta or rice.

A Simple, No-Fuss Tomato Sauce

No really. This is the epitome of simple. And mind-blowingly delicious.

You can't know how easy it is to make truly simple and delicious food until you've made this sauce -- then tasted it. The effort you put in is given back to you tenfold in a sauce that's bright and rich at the same time.



I love vegetables, and tomato sauces, but on their own they don't seem quite enough (this is why my stint as a vegetarian only lasted 3 months, years ago). What's missing is that fat mouth-feel. That rounded, complete, yes, this is what is filling and good, feel.

This sauce gives you that, along with an intense tomato flavor. There's nothing it in but tomatoes, a bit of salt, an onion, and the secret weapon ... butter. What, no garlic, no olive oil, no basil? It seems like a very non-traditional Italian sauce, and yet it comes from one of the most widely respected Italian cookbooks of all time, Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking.

It's so easy and so effortless that I can't imagine buying jarred marinara sauce again.



Marcella Hazan's Basic Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 28oz can of plum tomatoes (I got mine from Trader Joe's)
• 1 medium onion, halved
• 5 tbsp butter
• salt to taste

Method

1. Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and simmer for 45 minutes. Throw the onion halves away (or if you're like me, you'll just eat them separately).