Braised Oxtail

Simple braised oxtail. Not quite as good as the beef cheeks, but very enjoyable nonetheless. A picture of the raw tail pieces is on the previous post. Here's how I made them:

First, a mirepoix. Celery, carrots, and onion. After the oxtail pieces (seasoned with salt and pepper and lightly dredged in flour) were browned in bacon fat, the pieces were removed and these veggies were added along with some salt and pepper. Once the veggies were softened a little bit of tomato paste was added and cooked for about a minute.
After the mirepoix (with tomato paste) was cooked, I added some red wine and cooked it down until it was syrupy. Then I dumped in a can of whole peeled tomatoes with juice and broke up the tomatoes. Once the tomatoes were crushed I added the browned tails to the mix, along with a bay leaf and some more salt. Below is a picture of the mixture after about an hour covered in 325 degree oven.
About another two hours later and there it is. The sauce cooked down nicely and was surprisingly not fatty.

And finally, I pulled the the meat off the bones and discarded any pieces of fat that were clinging. The meat was added to some homemade curry pasta noodles (which might be the subject of a near future post) along with some of the braising liquid.
It was a nice dish, and came with a side of satisfaction from going face to tail with a fine grassfed cow. Now it's time to work through the middle of the beast. I picked up a porterhouse from the same place yesterday.