4.11.2011

Not So Offal

Here's another adventure...

Last Summer when we bought a big ol' hunk of cow with a group of friends, we all split up the offal.  We ended up with the Liver and a couple of pounds of Oxtails.  I'm not going to lie.  I was intimidated.  The liver turned out to be a horrendous failure.  It was just as icky as I imagined it would be - even when we cooked it with bacon and a pound of butter.  So, cooking and eating the tail portion of the cow made me a tidily bit apprehensive.

After doing a little bit of research I learned that oxtails have been a part of southern cuisine for decades.  Knowing this, I turned to the queen of decadent southern cooking, the one and only Paula Deen for a recipe.  I cringed when I discovered the cooking method to be "low and slow." Low and slow is my Achilles heel. (Incredibly fitting if you know my personality).  Thankfully, when the handsome hubby looked at the recipe, he offered to cook.  When I suggested we cook together, he politely said, "no."  His reasoning? We have very different cooking styles. read: he reads the recipe beforehand and carefully follows it and I don't.

Who would have ever guessed that these: 


would become this?


You guys, it was out of control yummy. The meal was absolutely delicious.  We served it over buttery rice and ate until our stomachs literally ached.  The meat was rich and flavorful, tender and savory.  And although it was a bit of a task to get all of it removed from the bone, the extra work was undoubtedly worth it.

I'll admit that I was pleasantly and hugely surprised.

Would you be willing to scarf down a pot full of the butt appendage of a cow?