Monday 21 March 2016

Chef Wan's Oxtail Soup


I have been eyeing this recipe for a long time because the picture in the cookbook and the ingredients tell me that this is a rather exotic oxtail soup.

I love beef, so anything to do with oxtail will interest me. It's not that easy to find frozen oxtail where I shop. But one day I got lucky and found some nice ones at Cold Storage. I bought two packets and stashed them into the freezer for a day when I had time to work on them.



As usual, my enthusiasm comes and goes. Being the fickle minded auntie that I am, one day I might decide I want to cook oxtail soup and on the day proper, I change my mind. 

Then one day, I found some organic lemongrass in the fridge. I don't usually buy organic lemongrass (it's more expensive) but I was desperate because the regular ones were not available. I had better use them up before they dried up.

All the other ingredients were available in the pantry, thanks to the stocking up during Chinese New Year. So I got busy. As I was batching up the powdered spices, I discovered that I had barely a tablespoon of coriander when I needed three. Arrgh!!


Luckily for me, I had another packet thanks to my bad habit of overstocking on kitchen ingredients. For once, my bad habit worked in my favor. 

The recipe called for 500g of oxtail. Since I was going to let the soup simmer for 2 hours of more on the stove, it made more sense to cook more. Both packets of the oxtail I bought added up to almost 1kg.

I didn't eat the soup immediately on the day it was cooked because I reckon it would taste better the day after when all the flavors had time to develop.

Well, this is a very exotic tasting soup and it was quite thick, more like a stew. It was delicious and I enjoyed the soup over four days.

It's so convenient to have soup (a tasty one at that) ready in the fridge during the weekday. All I need to do when I come home from work is zap the soup in the microwave and I am all set to eat!









Chef Wan's Oxtail Soup
Recipe source : Adapted from Simply Sedap! (page 36)

Ingredients :
- 1kg oxtail
- 3 tbsp powdered coriander
- 1.5 tbsp powdered cumin
- 1.5 tbsp powdered fennel
- 2 tbsp tomato puree
- 1.5l water 
- 2 carrots, peeled and diced
- 4 celery stalks, diced
- freshly cracked blacked pepper
- coriander leaves
- crispy fried shallots (I omitted but this is highly recommended)

Whole Spices
- 4 cardamoms
- 1 inch cinnamon stick
- 6 cloves
- 2 star anise

Finely ground paste
- 2 big onions and 8 shallots (why? because I did not have enough shallots hah..hah... I would have used 15 shallots)
- 6 cloves garlic
- 4 stalks lemongrass
- 1 thumbsized ginger

Method :
1. Heat oil in pot and brown the oxtails in batches. Set aside.
2. Using the same oil, saute the whole spices and ground paste until aromatic.
3. Add powdered coriander, cumin and fennel and continue to saute until fragrant.
4. Add tomato puree, oxtail and water and bring to a boil.
5. Add carrots and celery. 
6. Simmer over medium heat for 1.5 to 2 hrs until the oxtail is tender.
7. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with coriander leaves and fried shallots.

28 comments:

  1. Don't scold me, coz you susah payah cook this oxtail soup from scratch.. Oxtail soup reminds me of Campbell.. You said you will try it 1 day, have you? I open a can of Campbell cream of oxtail, add potato carrots, pour onto my pasta (no meat, cheapskate, haha), nak dapatkan rasa dia only..Of course your homemade oxtail sedap 100x , so much hou liew, so thick & rich, please give me 5 bowls, no rice :)

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    1. Yah, I remember that oxtail soup your mentioned but I couldn't find it at the supermarket. After that I forgot all about it hah..hah... Next I must try cooking western style oxtail soup. I used to have that at The Ship long ago.

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  2. I can eat this dish alone with rice, without other dishes... hehe...

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    Replies
    1. It's a complete meal, got meat and got vege.

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  3. I am even worse lah. Nowadays I could buy something in the supermarket, then instead of not feeling like cooking it when I got back, I totally forgot why I bought those ingredients in the first place! Goodness! >.<

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    1. hahahaha!! You make me laugh lah! In my case, I will buy the ingredients, stash it in the pantry and then forget about it.

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  4. Replies
    1. It's good. Different from oxtails soups I have eaten before.

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  5. My landlord gave me and my boyfriend some oxtail, and I have yet to use it. This looks like the perfect way to use it!

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    Replies
    1. Wow, gifted with oxtail! It's the perfect opportunity to cook oxtail soup.

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  6. oxtail soup, hmmm, i think i have not actually tried this soup before, just i do not have the urge to even order or try some, haha.. looking at your recipe, there seems a lot of ingredients and spices used for the soup.. but i guess those are surely always sitting in your fridge or some that you "accidentally" bought and forced yourself to use them all up, hehe~~

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    Replies
    1. hah..hah..I still have lots of ingredients in my pantry that I have yet to use. Old habits die hard LOL!

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  7. That looks so good! Never cooked oxtail before. One place here has it on their menu but always not available, so pissed off by that. I got a new slow cooker - maybe I can use for this - would need to cook a long time to get it nice and tender, I'm sure. 2 hours? Gosh! *faints* :D

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    Replies
    1. Since you have a slow cooker, then it's very convenient to cook oxtail soup or any kind of meat that requires long braising. Very convenient, just chuck it in the slow cooker and leave it to do it's thing.

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  8. That sure looks good!

    And I love soup and stew. :)

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  9. I love western-style oxtail soup but I haven't had a local version before. I wouldn't know where to begin to make oxtail soup cos I wouldn't know how to buy fresh or frozen oxtail...hehe! ;D

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    1. I suppose you could get the fresh ones from the market. The frozen ones are available at Cold Storage and Aeon but not all the time.

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  10. I love to drink those very good and very rich flavoured Ox Tail soups like the spicy Indon style. Yours looked even better lah. I know I get nothing for praising you again. Hmmm.... Hihihihi

    The next time I bump into Chef Wan I will ask him to read your blog post.

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    Replies
    1. hah..hah...your know many famous people. Better still, ask Chef Wan to cook for you hee..hee...

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  11. I see your photos, the soup looks like tersangat sedap! Hhmmmm, I can only imagine how delicious this soup/stew is with the beef taste. Did you suck all the oxtail bones clean? ;p

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    Replies
    1. I could have done with perhaps another 30 or 45 minutes braising and the oxtails would have been more tender.

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  12. Phong Hong, your oxtail soup or stew looks so delicious and mouth watering. I know the carrots will be very tasty too!

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    Replies
    1. Nancy, the carrots were soft and tasty. Goes well with the beef!

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  13. Hi Phong Hong, I'm wondering why all the females in my family don't eat beef. Supposed it is my family up bringing. The males will secretly enjoy beef outside the home. Must ask my grandma but no chance now, she has long gone away. This stew looks good and must be very aromatic.

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  14. Wouldnt adding the carrots and celery in for 11/2 hours render them too soft?

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  15. Is this dish eaten with rice or with a bun, or just purely eaten by itself as a complete meal?

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