Sunday, July 29

Soup ...

... I made oxtail soup today, from scratch. I can now see why people open tins.
First the price of oxtail, $13.00 a kilo, hardly a cheap cut for the frugal housefrau that it used to be (couldn't resist though, first time I've seen oxtail for ever, since I used to shop with my mum).
Second the time & mess. I cheated too, I did the first cook (meat, veg, herbs) in the blessed pressure cooker (without which I would have to halve my repertoire).
But then there was all the straining, the removing of the fat, the picking of the meat off the bones (an absolute bastard of a job) and the slow, rendering down to a fragrant broth.
Not to say it wasn't a delicious soup, flavourful, clear, full of dainty wee cubes of neep, spud & carrot, lovely meaty bits (what escaped the ravenous Pingu) but crikey, what an effort, I'm fair worn out.
And there's no delicious leftovers.

8 comments:

caw said...

Oxtail? What is that? Is it a real tail from a real Ox? Is it a long boney tail with clumps of meat hanging on to it?

Vass is das?

Me no understand!

Roo said...

Caw - tell me you are kidding??

DMM - didn't your mum tell you that Heinz Ox-Tail beats the crap out of doing it yourself ;o)

cookiecrumb said...

Hey, if you got it clear, you did something very, very right.
And no leftovers? Heh.

Ms Brown Mouse said...

CAW - tis really the tail of a moo cow. The meat doesn't hang off it though, it has to be painstakingly picked off.
Roo, she may well have but now I can say I did it myself (and will never have to do it again).
Cookie - eggwhite got it mostly clear!

e said...

I love the Ping ran off with some of the meat. How funny.

And I see that roo's South Park avatar is evolving - love it!

Ms Brown Mouse said...

Pingu is of the opinion that the stolen morsel is the best tasting morsel!
Roo appears to have morphed into some sort of disco dancing super hero.

Anonymous said...

I must admit that I clicked on "comments" to make several inquiries about this oxtail thing...but caw beat me to this. I have never heard of eating oxtail aka moo cow tail. Now, is "Heinz" oxtail made my ketchup company? I would like to request that a picture of a can of oxtail be posted...just for scientific research purposes, of course.

Ms Brown Mouse said...

Willsie, who'd have thought ox-tail soup would have prompted so much commnet?
Heinz oxtail soup is indeed made by the same company that makes your tomato sauce (can't quite bring myself to call it ketchup).
I'll dig out a pic somewhere for you.
You basically buy tail chopped into chunks - rather like you buy cow shin chopped into chunks to make osso bucco.
Meat cooked on the bone is the best meat methinks.