Old-fashioned Oxtail Soup!

I grew up on this hearty winter soup--or stew, if you prefer!--and I love it.  Remember the old saying "it sticks to your ribs?"  Well, it does.  It's wonderful, rich, simple peasant food and you really don't even need a recipe. 

Soup-making is sacred, to me.  Whatever combination of ingredients, I feel deeply connected to my ancestors stretching all the way back to the first pots that would hold a bubbling liquid, some meat, and some vegetables. (Tightly-woven baskets with hot stones dropped in, anyone?)

But I digress...

What do you have on hand?  Throw it in there!  We try hard to use organic vegetables and if that's not possible, fresh locally grown, and from the "clean 15" list of those least affected by chemicals.

All you really need are a variety of vegetables (think variety, color, and nutrient-dense!) and good quality oxtails, not always easy to find in today's hurry-up, ready made "cuisine."  A good butcher should be able to fix you up, even if you have to call ahead, and of course we look for locally sourced, pastured, hormone-free, grass-fed beef if at all possible.

I had a couple of pounds on hand--we buy the good stuff from Moink,  The Local Pig in the City Market in Kansas City, or Barham Family Farm in Kearney (MO), but I know there are plenty of other sources out there.

I lightly brown the meat in an iron skillet to bring out the rich flavor, then put it in the crock pot with bone broth, beef broth (home made or commercial) or water, and add whatever vegetables I have on hand.

This time it was onions (always), garlic, carrots, turnips, celery, zucchini, and radishes (yes, radishes!  They are wonderful cooked), and a few greens (baby spinach?  Chard?)  Sometimes I have celeriac or parsnips, but above you see the basics. 

Cut in bite-size pieces and add to the pot. Make sure the liquid covers most of the ingredients, but not to worry, they will squish up (the zucchini sure did!) and cook down into the broth.

Add what herbs you like (we make an Italian seasoning mix), season to taste, and put the lid on the pot.  Set to high and come back later to a wonderful dinner!  (If you use an instant pot, that's good too, I just don't have one.)

 
Oxtails are so rich in collagen and protein that the broth will partly solidify or gel when cool.  This is GOOD.

This was soooo good I even had a bowl for breakfast the next morning AND dinner the next night.  And had leftovers to freeze for later.

Bone Broth!

We've all read enough about how good bone broth is for us--for our ow strong bones, for skin, nails, hair, even arthritic or injured joints.  Lately, it's popped up in my reading about autoimmune syndromes...so yes, good stuff!

I've made it off and on for years, from whatever bones we have on hand--leftover turkey carcass, bones from a roast chicken, beef bones, you name it.  I've used it as is, as well as for the basis for some incredibly good soups and stews, even as an addition to sauces and gravies.

Let me tell you, the stuff you buy can't TOUCH home made.  It's thin and tasteless and not at all tempting, and yes, I've tried a lot of diffeent brands.  I add it to soup stock if I have it, but if you plan to drink it you pretty much need to add something to give it a bit of savor.

Enter home made.  Of course grandma used to keep a pot simmering on the back of her old woodstove, but these days the crock pot does a wonderful job!  (I'm sure an Instant Pot would too, but I don't have one.)

It really IS easy...all you need are bones (duh, right?) and whatever vegetables need to be used up in your crisper or garden, and a little salt and herbs for savor.

Get hold of the best bones you can...from grass-fed or free range critters is best.  I brown them or roast them before putting them in the crock pot.  (The last batch of beef bones I got, from Barham Cattle Company and Family Farms had SO much meat on them I ended up with a luscious beef stew instead of broth!  And of course they were marked soup bones!  I'm going to see if they'll save some bone broth bones for me...)

Cut up whatever vegetables you have on hand...I used enough to fill the crock pot.  Here are carrots, celery, onion, radishes, garlic and spinach, with a bit of chard and cabbage as well.  If you have other faves, add 'em.  If they're getting a bit long in the tooth, add 'em anyway.)

Add the bones....

Cover with water (or leftover broth), add salt and herbs, and you're done.  Turn on the crock pot, put on the lid, and walk away.  We do ours for at least 24 hours or more...a couple of days extracts more minerals.  (Sometimes I add a splash of apple cider vinegar to help liberate those minerals...but not enough to make the broth taste sour.)

That's a rich, delightful broth.  I love beef bone marrow, so I scoop it out and eat it when I discard the bones--it's full of nutrients!  Then you can enjoy this as is or strain out the vegetables, which is what we did.  That gave us two big quarts of luscious bone broth I'm enjoying a mug at a time, plus a container of vegetables to eat later or add to other dishes.  (They became part of a mixed vegetable side dish last night, and Lady enjoys the bones with our veterinarian's blessings...we don't waste much.)

As you can see, the hardest part of this is cutting up all those vegetables  A good cutting board and a good sharp knife makes that a pleasure, for me...I Zen out...

Corned Beef, home made style!

And yes, there was CONSIDERABLY more meat than that, J. just put the cabbage on top to cook in our slow cooker!

I looked through a lot of recipes for home-corning beef brisket, and settled on a variation of Sally Fallon's in Nourishing Traditions...it's really a cultured food, like pickles, in her recipe!

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First, I needed BASIC WHEY--easy peasy!

1 large carton plain yogurt with active cultures--not Greek yogurt because it's already strained!  
Put several layers of cheesecloth or one clean bandanna or other soft, fine cloth in a strainer, suspend over a bowl, and dump your yogurt in it.  Leave it to drain overnight and voila', basic whey!

(I salt the now-thick yogurt and add garlic or herbs for a spreadable cheese or dip--yummy!)

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Now the CORNING:

1 2 or 3 lb. beef brisket--we get grass fed beef from Quarter Ridge Cattle, and it's marvelous--the recipe calls for it to be frozen 14 days and then thawed, I imagine to get rid of any bacteria or bugs?  Fallon doesn't say...but we did it anyway!

1 cup whey
2 C. filtered water
4 T. sea salt
2 T. mustard seed
3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced (my addition!  We love garlic...)
6-7 bay leaves, crumbled
1/2 t. red pepper flakes

I pretty much doubled everything else because you want the brine to cover the meat...and I needed more.  If you just have a small hunk of brisket, plan accordingly.

Mix seasonings (including salt) and rub onto both sides of the meat.  Mix whey and water and pour over meat (and actually I mixed the seasonings into the liquid, which worked fine.)

Cover and marinate at room temp for about 48 hours, give or take, turning the meat several  times a day to make sure the brine reaches everything.  (Some people do this for considerably longer, 10 days or so, and keep the marinating meat in the refrigerator--that works too.)  I used a heavy enameled iron stock pot which let me get at the meat easily and kept the kitties and any other critters out!

The meat looks a big gray after its bath...not to worry, that's what it's supposed to look like.  As long as it smells good, the liquid isn't ropy, and you've turned it often, it should be great.

COOKING:

Apparently Fallon means for this to be eaten raw, since it's in her raw meat appetizers section, but we opted for the more traditional handling.  (Yeah, no thanks...)  SO, the next morning we discarded almost all the brining liquid, reserving the seasonings, put the meat in our slow cooker, and covered it with water and the herbs and spices.* 

This is the only recipe I found that called for whey, often used in home pickling, but it sounded like a great idea...so I did it!

We put the lid on and brought it to a boil, then reduced the heat.  2 hours or so before dinner, J. added the big old wedges of white cabbage you see up top.  When that was tender, we dug in, HAPPILY!

*If you use the larger amount of salt some recipes call for, you need to wash off excess salt, and then even discard the cooking water--happily it was fine without doing that!

Herb Encrusted Rib-Eye

First of all, get good meat.  We get ours from Whole Foods but what you don’t want is the feed lot raised stuff.  You’ll need two rib-eye steaks, about two inches thick (1-1 ½ pounds each). Yes, the picture is of a roast: this recipe will also work very well with small (3-5 lb) roasts or prime rib. Kate's sketch is of a beautiful Christmas roast from a couple of years ago.

Glaze:

2 large or 3 small garlic cloves, minced

2 T Dijon mustard

2 T lemon juice

2 T extra virgin olive oil

2 T Worcestershire sauce (Note: I now use Pickapeppa sauce to avoid high fructose corn syrup.)

Herb Mixture:

2 T Herbs de Provence

1 T parsley flakes

1 tsp dried minced garlic

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

1 tsp lemon pepper

Directions

Insert a meat thermometer into each steak – this helps with handling as well as allowing you to determine when they’re done.  Combine the glaze ingredients and pour over steaks, being sure to cover them thoroughly.  Combine the herb mixture and sprinkle heavily over each steak, ensuring they are completely covered.  Place steaks on a rack in an ungreased roasting pan and bake uncovered at 325° for about 45-50 minutes or until meat reaches desired doneness.  Remove to a warm serving platter. Let stand for 10-15 minutes before serving.

Serves four.

Notes:

1.  The herb mixture can be prepared in larger quantities and stored in a glass jar.

2.  The glaze can also be prepared ahead and refrigerated – just be sure to return it to room temperature before using.

3.  I cook these in our little convection toaster oven that has a tray that sits below the rack.  Rather than remove them to a serving platter I simply turn the oven off to let them rest.  This works just fine and also keeps the cats away from them.