Ingredients
2 pounds oxtail
8 cups excellent quality homemade beef broth
1 1/2 pounds trimmed beef tenderloin, cut into 4 equal portions at 6 ounces each
4 small sheets caul fat
4 ounces veal heart, thinly sliced
4 ounces cooked veal tongue, in 1/4 inch slices across the tongue
4 veal marrow bones, cut in 1” pieces
8 baby carrots, neatly peeled
12 assorted colors pearl onions, blanched and peeled
8 baby turnips, neatly peeled
1 leek, cut into coins and triple soaked in clean water to remove any lingering sand
1 cup fresh or frozen peas (may substitute asparagus tips, peeled fava beans, or fiddlehead ferns)
4 small stems fresh thyme, leaves stripped, stems discarded
fresh horseradish root
salt and pepper
grey sea salt
Instructions
1. Bring beef broth to a simmer in a 4 qt pot.
2. Meanwhile, season oxtails with salt and pepper and brown well on both sides in a sauté pan that can hold them comfortably.
3. Add nicely browned oxtails to simmering beef broth and cook, partially covered until tender. Approximately 2 hours.
4.Season beef tenderloin on both sides with salt and pepper and a few leaves of fresh thyme and wrap each in a small sheet of the caul fat, creating neat bundles.
5. When oxtails are tender, remove from the broth with a slotted spoon and set aside to cool briefly.
6. Add beef tenderloin and marrow bones to simmering broth and let cook 2 minutes.
7. Add onions, carrots and turnips to simmering broth.
8. Carefully pull all the oxtail meat from the bone and discard the bone and cartilege. Add the oxtail meat to the simmering broth.
9. Add leeks to the simmering broth and continue cooking for 4 minutes.
10. Add peas, sliced tongue and veal heart and cook for 1 minute.
Note: The beef tenderloin takes about 15 minutes to cook from its raw state to a perfect medium rare. The rest of the ingredients have different cooking times, so we add them in stages from longest cooking to shortest cooking, ending with the peas, so that when the tenderloin is finished, so is everything else, and the finished dish is ready to be served with all of its ingredients accurately cooked.
11. Divide the meats and vegetables nicely in 4 large bowls and spoon the broth around evenly. Reserve the rest of the broth for another use.
12. Season with a few grains of grey sea salt.
13. Grate a light dusting of fresh horseradish over each bowl.
Recipe excerpted from Blood, Bones and Butter (c) 2011 by Gabrielle Hamilton, used with permission by Random House
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