When I was in college, my friend and I took a trip to Atlantic City for the evening. We didn't have much of a plan, we just went there and figured we'd do some gambling and drinking, and then head back. Before we went off to lose our shirts, we looked around for a decent restaurant, and found a Cuban place called Cuba Libre. It's still there, by the way. So we sit down to eat, and we each decide to order some kind of oxtail stew they have on special, figuring that it would be interesting. I hadn't had oxtail before, and thought it might be a great place to check it out, having fondly remembered a number of other Cuban beef stews. But it wasn't just interesting - it was delicious. So much so that we cleaned our plates from this massive feast, which included not only a healthy quantity of meat but also rice, plantains, and a variety of other things that have since disappeared into a haze of pan drippings and caramelized vegetables.
We never gambled that night - we stumbled into the casino, half-drunk on meat, and played slots for 5 minutes before we decided to turn back. On a whim, I put $40 on red at a roulette table which hit and, having recovered the cost of my dinner, realized that we had won that night, big time.
This recipe is the first of two oxtail dishes that I will make - this being the more simple, more American version, cooked down slowly with red wine and root vegetables, and a future recipe being the Cuban oxtail stew, or rabo encendido. I just found this version on the New York Times recipe page and gave it a shot, replacing a non-latin variant on this recipe I made years back because this had more wine in it, and let's face it, that's going to make it much better. Turned out to be a winner, although it doesn't hold a candle to our Cuban feast that night.
We never gambled that night - we stumbled into the casino, half-drunk on meat, and played slots for 5 minutes before we decided to turn back. On a whim, I put $40 on red at a roulette table which hit and, having recovered the cost of my dinner, realized that we had won that night, big time.
This recipe is the first of two oxtail dishes that I will make - this being the more simple, more American version, cooked down slowly with red wine and root vegetables, and a future recipe being the Cuban oxtail stew, or rabo encendido. I just found this version on the New York Times recipe page and gave it a shot, replacing a non-latin variant on this recipe I made years back because this had more wine in it, and let's face it, that's going to make it much better. Turned out to be a winner, although it doesn't hold a candle to our Cuban feast that night.
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| Every bit as delicious as a chuck roast or short rib stew, if not more so. |
