New Recipes #2-3
#2 Oxtail Soup BJ's had big packs of oxtails. I've never really cooked with them before, other than throwing one into a pot of soup a couple of times, but that worked well, so I decided to try straight oxtail soup and see how it went. While it turned out well, I think I enjoyed it more for what I learned than for the finished product.
I followed this recipe pretty faithfully, adjusting for the five pounds of oxtails. I left the pot out on the porch overnight and peeled off about 1.5 cups of solid fat the next day. Then I pulled the oxtails out of the broth, separated the bones and copious amounts of fat, and was left with maybe 2 cups of meat. And the broth was still notably rich.
Straining out the stock vegetables and adding in separately roasted root veggies was a very interesting and effective strategy. I think I may adopt this for regular beef stew, at least occasionally, but I would add potatoes to the mix.
In the end, I don't think I'd do this again for soup, but if I were to decide to make beef stock, I think oxtails would be an excellent way to do that--I'd probably simmer the stock longer and toss the tails entirely rather than go to the effort of pulling off the meat.
#3 Bruschetta di ProsciuttoI had set my heart on doing the amazing pear/goat cheese/walnut/arugula crostini again for dinner on Wednesday, when I learned that one of our guests doesn't really dig cheese*. Since I had some prosciutto on hand, I decided to give these a try. It's an incredibly simple recipe: toast bread (I used sliced baguette), rub with garlic, drizzle with olive oil, dust with (kosher or sea) salt & (cracked black) pepper and put some prosciutto on top. But they were really tasty and came out more like "a recipe" than I would have suspected--I think it was the pepper. Tonight I did it again and added in the rest of the arugula and that worked well, too.
*He did try them and seemed to like them ok--the balance of flavors really is amazing.
I followed this recipe pretty faithfully, adjusting for the five pounds of oxtails. I left the pot out on the porch overnight and peeled off about 1.5 cups of solid fat the next day. Then I pulled the oxtails out of the broth, separated the bones and copious amounts of fat, and was left with maybe 2 cups of meat. And the broth was still notably rich.
Straining out the stock vegetables and adding in separately roasted root veggies was a very interesting and effective strategy. I think I may adopt this for regular beef stew, at least occasionally, but I would add potatoes to the mix.
In the end, I don't think I'd do this again for soup, but if I were to decide to make beef stock, I think oxtails would be an excellent way to do that--I'd probably simmer the stock longer and toss the tails entirely rather than go to the effort of pulling off the meat.
#3 Bruschetta di ProsciuttoI had set my heart on doing the amazing pear/goat cheese/walnut/arugula crostini again for dinner on Wednesday, when I learned that one of our guests doesn't really dig cheese*. Since I had some prosciutto on hand, I decided to give these a try. It's an incredibly simple recipe: toast bread (I used sliced baguette), rub with garlic, drizzle with olive oil, dust with (kosher or sea) salt & (cracked black) pepper and put some prosciutto on top. But they were really tasty and came out more like "a recipe" than I would have suspected--I think it was the pepper. Tonight I did it again and added in the rest of the arugula and that worked well, too.
*He did try them and seemed to like them ok--the balance of flavors really is amazing.