Peanuts for oxtail

THERE ARE people, you know, real people, some of whom consider themselves to be people of discernment, who scorn oxtail.
I cannot understand how you can be omnivorous, even carnivorous, and dislike oxtail. I can understand if you are a vegetarian
and it’s a question of oxtail being meat, but if you eat meat how can you possibly not like oxtail?
Actually, there’s another thing I cannot understand, and no one has been able to explain it to me so that it makes understandable sense. And it doesn’t only apply to oxen. How come, from the same animal, which started out as an egg and a sperm, one of each, how come you get meats as diverse in taste and texture as the tongue of an ox and the tail of an ox? It’s a mystery.
Anyway, I cooked an oxtail this past weekend as a rude gesture to the suddenly cold weather. “Up yours, Winter “, I said as I fired up the slow cooker on Saturday. I had thrown caution to the wind and found ox tail at R52.99 per kilo, which struck me as being a reasonable price because I have seen it, I kid you not, at R95 per kilo.
The secret of cooking an ox tail is slow cooking and patience. You cannot hurry it up, which I tried once. It seems logical, doesn’t it, that if you double the temperature the cooking time should be halved. Trust me, it ain’t true in the case of an oxtail. The time I tried it, the meat never seemed to tenderise. I suppose you can hurry the process up by way of a pressure cooker, but, I dunno, I reckon slow cooking just has to be better, and a slow cooker is the answer.
So around midday I tossed all the ingredients into the slow cooker, and that was it. About five hours later, and two hours before supper I tossed in the potatoes, and half an hour before supper I tossed in a can of butter beans, and I tell you, with brown rice
and some veggies on the side, it was FL (and the second word is “lekker”).
I discovered a new “Secret Ingredient”, which as a gesture of culinary solidarity I will share with you.
Ox-tail cooking always goes better with a good dollop of red wine, both in the cook and in the pot, but I didn’t have any. Then it occurred to me that brandy is simply wine concentrated by the process of distillation, and Doris drinks paraffin… sorry, I mean
brandy, and there was the remnant of a bottle of Richelieu in the cupboard.
So, I poured into the simmering stew, I dunno, a couple of double tots of Richelieu, and then put the lid back on. I tell you what, it gave the oxtail a wonderful flavour, just don’t overdo it, that’s my advice.
My mother introduced us kids to ox-tail when I was still in short pants, so it’s been part of my diet for ever. But we, us southern Africans, are not the only people who appreciate the cooked tail of an ox, it being the core of the Italian coda alla vaccinara, although as I understand it, they most often use a veal tail, the tail of a calf.
I don’t know what coda alla vaccinara means, but it must have something to do with a cow because “vaccinara” sounds a lot like vaccine, and we get that word from the Latin for mother-in-law… sorry, I mean cow, vaccine comes from the Latin word for a cow. In their ox-tail, or veal-tail, the Italians use a lot of celery, plus other vegetables, and apparently prepare it to taste sweet-and-sour, the thought of which doesn’t really appeal to me. But who knows, the Italians can cook and it’s probably very tasty.
The Russians eat ox tail, and “Versions of oxtail soup are popular traditional dishes in South America, West Africa, China, Spain and Indonesia”, according to Wikipedia. Oxtail, like I made it, adding butter beans, is popular in Jamaica, Trinidad, and other West Indian cultures.

Then, in the Philippines, they make their ox-tail stew using peanuts. Can you imagine that? They call it Karekare. Let me quote again, it’s easier: Karekare “is made from a base of stewed oxtail (sometimes this is the only meat used), pork hocks, calves feet, pig feet, beef stew meat; and occasionally offal, or tripe. Vegetables, which include (but are not limited to): eggplant, Chinese cabbage, or other greens, daikon [whatever that is], green beans, and asparagus beans are added – usually equalling or exceeding the amount of meats.

“The stew is flavoured with ground roasted peanuts or peanut butter, onions, and garlic. The stew is coloured with annatto” (whatever that is) “and can be thickened with toasted or plain ground rice.” Apparently, a very similar dish called Maafe is found in Mali and throughout western and central Africa.

Peanuts and ox tail? We’ve got some Black Cat in the cupboard, but I dunno. Call me a boring and unimaginative old fart if you
will, but I think I’d still prefer my oxtail with Richelieu brandy, but that might be just me.