Now THERE hangs a tale: oxtail bourguignonne

And don't think I didn't have trouble SPELLING that.
One of the more recent "trends" in cooking is what is being called, after Fergus Henderson's book "tip to tail" cooking. The thing is, you're supposed to use ALL of the animal, including what some would call "the nasty bits" or "the gnarly bits" and so forth.
Annalena sits back and shakes her head. This is NEW? She thinks not. Back in her childhood days (as compared to her youth, her middle age, and her dotage), one of the dishes Nana would serve forth ocassionally (when we were truly evil children), was "gabezelle." The older southern Italians amongst us will recognize it: sheep's head. The WHOLE head, brought to the table, steamed or boiled, with a tongue hanging out, eyes that were opaque from cooking, etc. It was, in a word, GROSS. I still shudder at the thought of my Nana, invoking some of her evilness saying "Here, darling. Let me serve you some of the eye. It's very good for seeing WHAT YOU DID WRONG."
And they wonder why I find "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" a comedy.
But beyond that, we all have experienced, at least the choice, of eating "the nasty bits." I have had brain (not real fond of it: the texture skeeves me), tongue (LOVE IT!!!), liver (thank you, I'll pass unless it's foie gras), kidney (rabbit and lamb: absolutely), lung (in my student days: stuffed with oatmeal and steamed. Once was enough); my favorite tripe (stewed with tomatoes, Tuscan style, or pickled), pigs feet or trotters , or Italian sausages stuffed into the skin of the foot (wanna gross out your WASP friends? Hmmmm). So someone tell me: what is really new about all of this?
Which brings us to the dish of the moment, using ox tail. If you're going to go tip to tail, you do have to deal with the tail. Many people, I think, have the notion that the tails of animals are not edible, that they're all bone and skin or something like that. Not so. Unquestionably, they are bony, but the meat is delicious, in the same way that the neck of a duck is terrific (tonight, I am having MY version of Buffalo chicken wings, which is roasted duck neck with the same blue cheese sauce. YUM).
Fact is, the tail of beef type animals, is eaten everywhere. Just today, in the NY Times, there is a recipe for Jamaican style oxtail. Italians have "coda vaccinaria," and as I learned from my Korean vegetable lady Nevia, Koreans eat it all the time. I have had it as a stuffing for ravioli. And I believe I cooked it, once, about 20 years ago, but since I sometimes have trouble remembering 20 hours, let alone 20 days, this may not be so.
At some point, the meat must have come from oxen. As far as I know, oxen are not used as food animals anymore. So we keep the word "oxtail," but it comes from cows.

I saw this recipe, and immediately sent off a note to my meat man, Chip, for oxtail. And I was in luck: he put them aside for me.
OK, first disclosure: when you buy meat like this from a small supplier, it LOOKS like what it is. Even Annalena was a bit put off when she saw her oxtails, cut up and looking - yup - just like a tail - with a thick end, tapering to the tiny end. OK, buck up Annalena, you've cooked tripe, you can do this. And I brought em home and made this dish. It's GOOD.

Now, as we go through this, I am going to tell you where I changed things. The base recipe is a classic bourguignonne, which is rather involved. I simplified it.

I am going to run down the ingredients list here first. You will need about 5 pounds of oxtails. As with all meat, get grass fed if you can. You will also need a few sprigs of thyme, and a couple of bay leaves (the recipe called for fresh bay leaves. Good luck). You also need a cup and a half of flour, mixed with a couple of teaspoons of salt. Put that on a flat surface, like a baking sheet. You will want to chop up enough onions to measure two cups, and don't worry about fine surgery. Also, a cup of chopped up carrots, and then about 2 cups of them, cut into small cubes. About six cloves of garlic, smashed, but not chopped. 2 cups of beef stock, and 2 cups of red wine. REMEMBER: cook with stuff you'd drink, but don't use the 90 dollar Kistler to make this stew. A pound of mushrooms of some kind (the recipe called for sliced creminis, which I used. Next time, I will quarter them, but you could use whatever you like). Finally, about a cup of chopped leeks. (The recipe called for 12 peeled shallots. Annalena has resolved that she is never going to peel shallots again in her life).

Now, we cook. Put six tablespoons of olive oil in a big pan or pot (the recipe called for cooking bacon to get the drippings, and then putting aside the bacon "for another use. " Bite me. Olive oil is fine. ). Get the oxtail pieces, pat them dry, and then turn them in the flour to coat them. You'll be much happier doing this on the flat surface than in a bowl. Trust me. Heat up the olive oil and when it's really hot, brown that oxtail and brown it GOOD. There is something about the meat quality of oxtails, such that they don't brown as richly as other cuts, but they DO brown. You just have to be patient. Brown them all over. It will probably take you 6-10 minutes a panful, and you'll probably do two pans ful.

Now, at the end of this, you'll have the browned oxtails, saved in a bowl or something, and a very ucky pan. The flour will have come off and blackened. Don't do what the recipe said, which is to continue with this fat. Drain it off, clean your pan and add 3 more tablespoons of olive oil, as you add the onions, the chopped carrots, and half of the garlic to the new oil. Put in a teaspoon of salt, and saute' until the onion begins to soften. Probably another six minutes or so. Now add the thyme, the bay leaf, the broth the wine and of course, the oxtail (so you better have a nice big pot). Bring this all to a boil, and when it comes to a boil, do one of two things. Either cover the pot and lower the heat REAL low (a flame disperser is a good thing here), or cover the pot and move it to a 350 oven. Leave this alone for a good, solid three hours. The meat will have begun to tenderize at that point, and your house is going to smell wonderful. At the end of the three hours, add your mushrooms , leeks, the remaining garlic, and your cubed carrots. Cover the pot, and continue to cook for another 45 minutes to an hour (I think, by the way, squash is wonderful here as substitute).

The recipe instructs you to now "tilt the pot and spoon off the fat." Again, good luck. But while the second cook is going on, mix a couple of tablespoons of butter with an equal amount of flour, to make a paste. Rather than tilting the pot, which will only frustrate you, get that bowl back and take the meat and as much of the vegetable matter out, as you can. You'll be surprised how little liquid is left. Stir in that paste you just made, and cook at low heat for about 8 minutes. This is going to thicken the sauce (there is a technical term for this which Annalena's spongy brain cannot remember). Add everything back in.

You can continue to cook this for a couple of hours. It won't hurt it. Or you can let it cool, and then refrigerate it. After refrigeration, the fat will come to the surface and harden. Scoop it off when you rewarm the dish. Have your salt shaker ready. It will need it.

This is positively yummy. It's a great dish. It really is. The oxtails give a thick silky richness that is very hard to explain. So, buck up your courage, get those oxtails, and make a braise. You'll come back to this one again. Promise.