VacatioNg- Braised Ox Tail

I'm still experiencing withdrawals from 7 days of fun and food with my family. I miss waking up everyday at 7 (that's really 4AM since we're west coast time!) just so I don't miss a minute of hanging out time with everyone! We all met in Orlando in the most lovely vacation rental house. It was a week of relaxation, tennis, swimming and EATING! We started the trip with a fun dinner at the Black Angus steak house! Then the next day we went straight to the Asian market with a pit stop at the Vietnamese restaurant next door of course. We stocked the fridge and pantry full of food and snacks and I mean FULL! Then the cooking began! I'm going to let my sisters talk more about the food but I would like to highlight my pride and joy for the week, braised oxtails!

We saved this dish for later in the week as you will see from the other Ngs that there were many nights of succulent roasted meats! We served it with rice, roasted zucchini and Cindy's delicious corn casserole.

Em's Ox Tail Stew

1 oxtail cut into pieces

1 can of whole plum tomatoes (hand crushed with juices)

1 carrot diced

1 onion diced

5 cloves garlic crushed

thyme - 1 teaspoon dried or 4 sprigs fresh

1 bay leaf

1 tablespoon Goya sofrito (if not available, totally ok to leave out)

• brown oxtail in 9 qt dutch oven or other large pot
• remove oxtail and saute onion, garlic until caramelized
• add sofrito if using
• add tomatoes and bring to boil
• add bay leaf, thyme
• return oxtails and bring to boil
• add water to almost cover, bring to boil
• simmer for an hour and half to 2 hours until oxtails are tender

Vietnamese for Lunch

Three Treasure Rice - 3 style pork with soft fried egg

Grilled Pork with Vermicelli Dry / with Soup Bowl

Mama's Oxtail Tail Soup

How about a nice pot of soup....

and tonight we have one of our childhood favorites ..

" Mama's Oxtail Soup "

Went to my local butcher,

selected a tail in whole and had them slice it to preferred size

Basic soup ingredients

Ingredients:

• oxtail
• tomato
• celery
• corn
• potato -waxy ( starchy ones seems to just fall apart and thicken the soup)
• garlic
• salt + white pepper
• sour cream
• oyster sauce

1. Heat water in stock pot, bring to a boil

2. Par-boil oxtail for 2 minutes then rinse with water

3. Add all ingredients to the boiling water, bring it back to a boil then simmer on med-low heat for 1 1/2 - 2 hours- now isn't that easy!

Look at this bowl of goodness!

Each spoonful of hearty vegetables just melts in your mouth

and the oxtail meat almost falls off the bone.

Had oyster sauce for dipping on the side and a dollop of sour cream-yum!

This soup gets better the next day, add some rice and you 'll have a stew like soup.

My appetite just perked up from posting this !