Soups = Comfort Food
I have always loved my mum's cooking. She can cook anything from simple but bomb as omelettes to complicated traditional slow cook dishes. The bomb as bitch went from cooking new and fresh food every single fucking afternoon after work to catering and serving a restaurant without a single complaint up to date. She used to come home after 9-10 hours of work and make at least 2-3 dishes (not including rice) for us to enjoy. Now that we have our restaurant business, and especially of late since our customer volume has at least doubled, mum hasn't been cooking at home often. Something I really miss and surely took for granted. Anywho, what I have associated my mum with in regards to cooking is her comfort soups. Whenever I am faced with a stressful event, she never fails to have some soup readily available. Lately I have learnt a really simple soup that I fell in love with when I was young (thanx mum). I have no idea what the hell its called, but I call it "beetroot soup" and mum knows whats up.
All the seasoning you want for this soup is in the ingredients. The richness will come from cooking the ox tail. The longer you cook it for, the richer it will taste and the more tender the meat will be, The sweetness will mostly come from the carrot was you boil it and the main flavor is obviously from the beatroot =Q. Don't bother with the salt and pepper and sugar stuff. Just a pinch of MSG (bot nhoc) and add fish sauce to your taste. If you are like my bf, the mother fucker likes his food to be salty, so there will be about 2 or so teaspoons of fish sauce added to the soup (note: I don't measure with spoons and just squirt from the bottle, so its just a rough estimate).
You will need:
500grams ox tail, 1-2 beetroot, 2 carrots a bit less than 500g potatoes, along with coriander, fish sauce and bot nhoc to taste
Method:
1. When choosing your oxtail, try to find smaller pieces with less fat. If you have no luck with the fat, simply cut it off while you are washing and prepping the meat to cook. Chuck the oxtail into a pot and fill with water until the water is 4 cms above the meat. Turn the stove on high and wait for the water to boil before turning the flame down so the water doesn't boil over and out of the pot.
2. Wash and peel the carrot and potatoes and cut it into 2cm cubes (you can also cut large chunks, but Denne likes his to be smaller). While peeling the beetroot, it is best to do it under the tap with a small stream of running water. This will make peeling easier and reduce staining. Cube the beetroot the same way as the carrot and potatoes and put aside on a separate container. Make sure to quickly wash out the chopping board as the beetroot juices may stain it.
3. Let the water boil for at least an hour and periodically check for fat and stuff collecting at the top of the boiling soup. Scoop the fat and stuff out every 10 or so minutes, this is very important. If you are cooking the meet for an extended period of time, make sure that you add more water when the soup reduces.
Note: Do not add vegetables until all the fat stuff is gone from the soup!
4. Add beetroot into the soup 15 or so minutes before you add carrots and potatoes, as beetroot takes much longer to soften than the rest. Remember, that the amount of time you need to allow the beetroot to cook is dependent on their size. Add the carrots into the soup, wait about 5 minutes to add the potatoes. If the soup does not cover all the vegetables, add water until it just covers everything, then let it cook for another 15 minutes or until the potatoes are soft.
5. Add a pinch of MSG and drizzle fish sauce to your taste.
6. Serve and top with coriander.
The most simple bloody soup to master. Its bloody delicious too =Q
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