Caramel Braised Oxtail Noodle Soup

nobody@vox.com(julie) — Sun, 11 May 2008 20:38:51 -0700

If you read my post on pistachio caramels, you'll remember that I had some temperature issues that weekend. It was so warm in my air condition-less apartment, that my first batch of caramels started getting all melty and greasy. Definitely not suitable for the public. I was heartbroken, but there was work to be done, so I shoved the rejects into the cupboard to deal with later on. Later on arrived and I thought back to a soy caramel sauce that I had had at Ludobites a few months ago. I believe that theirs had accompanied a fish dish. Another savory and sweet winning combination. For the soy caramel sauce, I simply melted down the caramels and added a few dashes of soy sauce. That's it. Easy enough, right?
I had a few pounds of oxtails in the freezer that I had been dying to use. Oxtails are one of my favorite foods in the world. Top five for sure. The meat is extremely tender and full of gelatinous goodness. I braised the oxtails in my soy caramel sauce, red wine, onions, carrots and celery. After a six hour braise the meat was falling off the bones and the yummy gelatin in the bones had flavored the broth nicely. I skimmed the fat from the broth and reduced it to concentrate the flavors. It would serve as the base to my noodle soup. Chestnut noodles lent just the right amount of sweetness. Here's the assembly of the bowl... Swirl a nest of fresh pasta into the bottom of the bowl, sprinkle with blanched rainbow carrots, add baby mizuna leaves and shredded napa cabbage to the bowl (it'll get wilted when it's swirled in by the eater), garnish with scallions and finally add a ladle of broth. Brush oxtail meat with the caramel sauce and place it on top of the noodles. I removed my meat from the bones, just because I had some squeamish eaters coming over.

This meal get an A+ for slurpability! I still have tons of soy caramel sauce left. Any ideas guys?

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Spicy Tamarind Noodles with Radish Sprouts

nobody@vox.com(julie) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 19:07:58 -0800

Spicy Tamarind Noodles with Radish Sprouts

Fascinating food. Some foods are just more fascinating than others. Take tamarind for example. Tamarind has got to be one of the most fascinating fruits to work with. Brown pods with a thin crisp shell, hiding a sticky pulpy fruit embedded with fibers and seeds the color of polished coconut shell. I sure wish I had a picture right about now (doh). I've had it in candy and agua de tamarindo, but have never prepared it from its raw state. I picked up a box of fresh tamarind from a recent trip to Ranch 99. Let's try something new. Keep the kitchen exciting.
I admit that they did sit in the refrigerator a few days before I could get motivated. A little Google research revealed that tamarind was one of the flavoring elements of Pad Thai and that it was a common ingredient in Asian and Latin American cooking. I see, I see. I did not know that. I also learned that I would have to somehow separate the fibers and seeds from the pulp. This is nothing like pitting plums. With a little help from the internet, I learned that the best way to extract the pulp would be to boil the deshelled pods with a bit of water. The heat and water would liquefy the pulp, coaxing the seed and fibers away. After this step, I pushed the mixture through my trusty tamis to separate the tamarind paste. I had a nice little jar of fresh tamarind paste ready to be used.
Naturally, my first experiment was a version of Pad Thai (a very bastardized version). I didn't have any of the iconic fish sauce so I subbed in a little soy sauce, a spoonful of crunchy peanut butter, a dollop of oyster sauce, some sambal and a squirt of ketchup. That's right. You'd be surprised at how the sugar in the ketchup balances out the tang of the tamarind perfectly. Now you see why I call this dish a bastardized Pad Thai? :) I sauted some yu choy, shitake mushrooms and carrots for the vegetable element of the dish. I also fried up a few tofu rectangles for the protein. To finish it off, I served it with radish sprouts and lime wedges. Very tasty, but in the end I renamed the dish "Spicy Tamarind Noodles". Maybe I should have been cliche and called it "everything but the kitchen sink noodles". Pad thai would just be straight misleading.

Coming soon:
Get excited... one more post coming up about tamarinds!!! And this one is a dessert!

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julie’s blog

Caramel Braised Oxtail Noodle Soup

Spicy Tamarind Noodles with Radish Sprouts