Oxtail And Root Vegetable Stew

     It's seriously and officially Winter in Indianapolis.  That means it's time for slow-simmered stew!  Sunday, Tam braved the elements, with a promise to bring home "stew fixings."  I didn't press for details -- it's more interesting that way.

     She returned with a half-pound of Italian sausage, a pound each of steak tips and oxtail, a huge rutabaga, several turnips, a bag of carrots, a whole fennel,* a couple of onions, sliced shiitake mushrooms and a big carton of crushed tomatoes.†

     So, here's the procedure for turning all of that into supper:

     Set the meat out before you start cooking; put salt and pepper on the steak tips (or stew meat) and oxtails and let 'em get less cold.

      I started by cooking the half-pound of (loose) sausage with a little Italian spice mix and fresh-ground mixed pepper while I peeled and cut up the rutabaga, which was huge. As I cut it into 1/2" cubes, I put them in a bowl and sprinkled a little ground chipotle and sea salt with garlic on each layer. Don't go overboard!

     The sausage is cooked like ground beef for sloppy joes, you just keep breaking it up, When the sausage was cooked, I removed to a bowl it with a slotted spoon, covered it and set it at an angle. So there's grease in the pan; the rutabaga goes in, maybe with a little sesame oil for smokiness. You'll get some more grease from the sausage after a few minutes, just pour it over the veggies. Cover and make sure the heat's not too high. (Once you get the last of the grease from the sausage, set the meat somewhere to keep warm.)

     As the rutabaga cooks (and the more you cook it, the better), peel the turnip and cube it, then add it to the pot and stir everything around. After it has cooked down some, you can add a little water (and deglaze, the spatula is your friend and that goodness needs to get cooked into the vegetables), but not enough to cover. Then cut up the carrots, 1/2" cubes, and add them. You're sauteing all this as you go. The photo shows this point in the process.

      (About here is where I should have put in the oxtails, salted and peppered, but I hadn't noticed them. Get them well-browned on all sides. I added them with the steak tips and it went fine.)

      Wash and cut up the fennel bulb -- a little bigger then 1/2 cubes, since the layers will fall apart. You can wash some of the feathery bits and add them in small clumps, if you'd like.

      Dice the onion and add it, too -- I put 3/4 of it in now and saved some back, on a whim.

      Add the mushrooms right after the onion. Follow package directions. Most of them need to be rinsed off. Chop them up if needed.

     Cook all that down, while cutting up the green and red bell pepper. Use something with heat here if you would prefer. They go in last. Peppers are kind of delicate and shouldn't be overcooked.

     Add the stew beef (half pound to a pound) and brown it. Once it's well-browned, add the sausage back in and some beef broth (I use Better Than Bullion, which is not cheap but worth the price. A little dab dissolved in boiling water will do you, read the directions); deglaze, get it simmering, add the tomatoes and then cover. (My biggest stewpot and one of the saucepans have clear covers. Handy as can be for keeping an eye on the food.)

      You might want to grab out the biggest oxtail right before you add the tomatoes. Haul it out and set it on the cutting board and let it cool a little. The go after it with a small, sharp knife and pointy kitchen shears, removing meat and discarding fat and small bits of gristle. Toss the meat in, and put the bone back in once you have it as picked clean as you can manage. Don't worry if you missed some. Fish out another section of oxtail -- Tam bought three good-sized ones -- let it cool enough to handle, and give it the same treatment. You will probably do this at least twice for each section. Keep returning the bones to the pot: there's all manner of good stuff in there that you want cooked into the stew.

      It's done when the rutabaga and turnip is soft and the oxtail bones are as clear of meat as you can get them.

      This will easily serve six. Or two people for several days. It generally gets better after a day in the fridge and reheating -- and leave those oxtail bones in if you can!
_________________________________
* Not everyone is familiar with this.  It's kind of like celery, turned way, way up.  Stalks with feathery green leafy parts emerge from a large bulb.  The taste is distantly root beer-like but not overpowering, and works way better in savory dishes than you might expect..  As far as I know, the whole thing is edible, though people generally use the bulb and feathery parts.

† Our favorite brand recently stopped using cans in favor of lined cardboard boxes.  I was doubtful, but it's fine.