RABO DE TORO

RABO DE TORO

#SIAintheKitchen

There’s always one dish that stands out whenever I travel. And when I visited Cordoba last month, the cute little walled city in Andalusia, Spain, I sought out to find the one dish that they were most known for: rabo de toro.

Rabo de toro is an oxtail stew, slow-braised in a medley of wine, tomatoes, celery and carrots. It’s a fall-off-the-bone, sop-up-all-the-sauce-with-crusty-bread type of meal. It is unequivocally rich and comforting - a perfect dish to welcome in out upcoming winter. I knew that this was going to be the first meal I’d have to make upon returning home to Canada.

It’s very similar to the Italian coda alla vaccinara, another oxtail stew slow cooked until perfection with a similar mixture of ingredients. With that version, it is heavier on the celery and spices - a lot more cloves, a bit of marjoram. With such a similar flavour profile, it’s no wonder that I, too, fell in love with rabo de toro so easily.

Because there is very little meat found on oxtail, I’d suggest doubling up the amount. I got this form T&T where it is already chopped up - I usually pick the smaller kind rather than the larger pieces. There were so many different recipes I had glanced at to create this recipe and I would say the results were absolutely on point and - dare I say - better than the one I had in Spain? I didn’t use a Spanish wine or sherry in this dish but went with a heavier cabernet franc/merlot blend which was soaked up by all of the ingredients. Serve this with an equally heavy glass of wine and fresh, crusty bread.

RABO DE TORO - serves 4 - 6

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil

• 2.5 lbs oxtail, smaller pieces preferred

• 1/2 red onion, diced

• 4 stalks celery, diced

• 2 carrots, diced

• 1/2 (6oz) can tomato paste

• 1 tsp smoked hot paprika

• 1 tsp sweet paprika

• 1/4 tsp ground cloves

• 2 bay leafs

• freshly ground black pepper

• 1 tbsp kosher salt

• 2 cups full-bodied red wine

• 1 (28.5oz) can diced tomatoes

1. Heat the vegetable oil in a Dutch oven or any oven-proof bakeware over medium-high heat. Season the oxtail with salt and pepper and began to brown the oxtail in batches if it all doesn't fit in the pot. Brown on all sides, can take up to 7 minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside. The pan should have lots of brown bits mixed in with the oil; if not, continue browning.

2. Preheat the oven to 300F. Add the onion, celery and carrots to the oil and begin to sauté until slightly softened. Stir in the tomato paste, ground cloves, paprikas and freshly ground pepper. Add the oxtails back to the pot and de-glaze with red wine. Pour in the diced tomatoes and stir. Ensure that all ingredients are well-incorporated and bring to a boil. Cover and turn off the heat.

3. Transfer the pot to the preheated oven and braise for 3.5 hours. I like to serve this the day after to let all the flavours meld together. Serve with red wine and crusty bread.