Ochsenschwanz-Eintopf

Remember my friend Andrea from Three Maples Farm? While I was there picking up an absolutely delicious duck, I also grabbed an odd ingredient that I knew I would struggle to find in the local grocery store: oxtails! It seems odd in our Western culture to think about eating the tail of an animal, but there are a lot of animal parts that we wind up wasting. Tails have bones, which are good for making stock, and a little meat, which made this recipe very tasty.

Ochsenschwanz-Eintopf/Oxtail Stew

3 lbs oxtail, disjointed

½ C flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp MSG

¼ tsp pepper

1 ½ C chopped onion

3 tbsp butter

1 can tomatoes

1 ½ C hot water

4 medium potatoes

6 medium carrots

2 lbs peas

1 tbsp paprika

1 tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

¼ C water

2 tbsp flour

Wipe oxtails clean with a damp cloth. Mix flour and seasonings together in a deep bowl or bag. Coat oxtail pieces in flour mixture.

Put butter and onion in a large pot and cook over medium heat until onion is transparent. Remove onion with a slotted spoon and set aside. Put meat into pot and brown on all sides.

Drain tomatoes and set liquid aside. Make sure tomatoes are cut into small pieces. Return onion to pot along with hot water and tomato liquid. Cover tightly and simmer 2 ½ to 3 hours or until meat is nearly tender.

Use a melon-ball cutter to cut potatoes and carrots. I’m proud to say I did not waste the time, energy, or vegetables that this recipe suggests. While making potato and carrot balls would certainly look cute, it would also waste a lot of the potatoes and carrots, plus it would take forever, so I opted with normal cuts. When meat is tender, add potatoes, carrots, and peas, along with seasonings. Cover and simmer 20 minutes, or until vegetables are nearly tender. Add tomatoes and cook 10 more minutes. Remove meat and vegetables from broth.

Put water in a screw-top jar with flour. Cover jar tightly and shake until flour and water are combined. Pour mixture slowly into soup broth, stirring constantly with a whisk. Bring to boiling and cook until of desired thickness. Return meat and vegetables to pot and heat through before serving.

We had mixed feelings about this dish from The German & Viennese Cookbook. While it was very tasty and we loved the idea of trying something new, the oxtails were a little difficult to eat. Like I said, the tail is a bit of bone with some morsels of meat on it, but when it came time to get the meat off the bones this stew (which one normally assumes to eat with a spoon) became a fork/knife meal, with occasional finger eating as well. That said, I love the idea of using every part of the animal, so I would say our first attempt at eating oxtails was a successful experiment.

Have a question or a request? Put it in the comments below and I’ll be sure to respond. Fröhe essen!