Thai-style Oxtail Soup

Rub the tiger balls for good luck

I had a visitor from Australia this weekend, which not only meant that I had to be a good tour guide and show him the city where I live, but also (as any responsible host would have done) that I had to feed the bastard… (I’m just kidding of course: he was great guest, and he wasn’t born out-of-wedlock, which means that he couldn’t have been a bastard).
So, after being this hectic weekend, are you ready for the recipe?

I’ve made this soup several times before with a recipe that I’ve stolen from our friend the internet. It’s an easy soup to make, but it’s a bit time-consuming to boil the ox tails. I’ll share the recipe with all of you readers and especially with SMCWrites (because I happen to know that she loves cooking).

Picking the meat off the bones

You’ll need:

• 1 kg (kilo) oxtail (Come on! Use the metric system folks!).
• 2 tablespoons oil ( I use peanut oil)
• 1 chopped onion
• 5 cloves chopped garlic
• 3 red chili with (or without if you prefer it less spicy) seeds, minced
• 1 piece lemon (juice only)
• 1 lime (juice only)
• 1 ½ tablespoons sugar (white or brown, it doesn’t really matter. I use brown).
• 1 crushed lemongrass
• 1 can of chopped canned tomatoes
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 ½ liter beef stock (diluted) or broth
• 20 g fresh ginger, cut julienne (thin strips)
• 1 x green zucchini, cut into strips
• 1 pc red bell pepper into strips (red bell pepper, red paprika, capsicum…)
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Oxtail soup

What to do?!?!?

1. Heat the oil in a frying pan, brown the oxtails. Take them out of the pot.
2. Sauté (a fancy word for frying lightly!) onion, garlic and chilli in oil. Don’t let them go all brown. Add lemon grass, lime and lemon juice and sugar, mix well. Add the chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, lime leaves and broth / stock.
3. Add the oxtails into the pan and let it all simmer for approx. 3 hours, until meat is tender and separates from the legs.
4. Remove the bones out of the stock power, cool them down a little and set the pot aside. (Chill the oxtails on a plate in a cold window, or just on a plate – they’ll have to be cold enough so that you can handle them with your fingers.
   Pick the meat from the bones.
5. Remove lime leaves / lemon grass from the pot.
6. Put the meat back into soup and add the peppers, zucchini and galangal / ginger (personally I prefer using ginger, because I’m not a big fan of galangal).
   Let the soup simmer for another 15-20 minutes.
7. Just before serving, add 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro (fresh coriander).

If the soup is too spicy, this obviously means that you’re a wuzz. If that’s the case: add some coconut milk to murder the spiciness.

(P.S: Oxtails are also great for cooking beef stock!)

EDIT: Apropos metric-system. Here’s an illustration: