Insanely Good Oxtail Stew ♥ Master sauce for four more meals

You know that saying..."Inspiration comes in many forms."
Recently I was inspired to make use of 4 cups of sauce, leftover from an oxtail stew.

Not wanting to throw away a gift of a highly flavored sauce, I challenged myself to create four other recipes from that one sauce.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that other people might actually be interested in this concept.
I came up with a set of rules.
Rule #1: I must use at least 1 cup of the master sauce per recipe.
Rule #2: I must make create these recipes using 10 ingredients or less.
Rule #3: Each recipe must create a dish totally different from all the rest.
and
Rule #4: The recipe for the 1st dish (which will be referred to as "the master sauce") must yield at least 4 cups of leftover sauce.

Now that I have completely confused you, let me try to explain by example.


Since this recipe yielded 1.5 quarts of sauce, I had 1 quart of leftover sauce.
I then sat down at my computer and created four completely different dishes using 1 cup of the master sauce in each and froze the ones I did not need immediately.

A Sichuan Braised Cod, Spanish Meatballs, a Shrimp Etouffe and an Oven Braised Italian Spare Rib dinner.

I will post each of those recipes as the week progresses, so stay tuned to see how they all turn out.
I have made two additional dinners so far and today I will braise the ribs and on Monday, make the cod.

Let's get cooking.......

Insanely Good Oxtail Stew
Adapted from Jamie Oliver

Serves 8-10

* 5 pounds oxtails
* sea salt
* olive oil
* 2 medium leeks
* 2 stalks of celery
* 4 medium carrots
* a few sprigs of fresh thyme
* a few sprigs of fresh rosemary
* 4 fresh bay leaves or 3 dried
* 4 whole cloves
* 2 tablespoons AP flour
* 2 (28oz) can plum tomatoes
* 9 ounces porter (beer) or red wine
* 1 carton beef stock
* Worcestershire sauce

Preheat oven to 425°. Place a large roasting tray in the oven to preheat.
Carefully remove the hot tray from the oven; add the oxtail. Season with salt & pepper and drizzle over the oxtail. Toss to coat and place back into the hot oven for 20 minutes, or until golden and caramelized.

Meanwhile, trim and halve the leeks and celery lengthwise, then chop into rough 1-inch chunks. Peel and chop the carrots into 1-inch pieces, then place into a large Dutch oven over a medium-low heat with 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
Pick, roughly chop and add the thyme and rosemary leaves, then add the bay and cook for around 20 minutes, or until soft and sweet, stirring frequently.

Meanwhile, remove the oxtail from the oven and set aside. Reduce the oven temperature to 325ºF.

Add the cloves and flour to the veg, stirring well to combine, then pour in the tomatoes and porter (or wine, if using). Add the oxtail and any roasting juices, cover with the beef stock or 1 quart of cold water and stir well. Turn the heat up to high and bring to the boil, then pop the lid on and place in the hot oven for around 5 hours, or until the meat falls away from the bone, stirring every hour or so and adding a splash of water to loosen, if needed.

Remove the pot from the oven and leave to cool for about 10 minutes. Using rubber gloves, strip the meat from the bones and return to the pan, discarding the bones. Add a good splash of Worcestershire sauce.

I added fresh corn cut from the cob and a dusting of grated cheese and served over whole wheat egg noodles.

Nutritional Information (amount per serving):
Calories 523cal
Carbs 12g
Sugar 6.4g
Fat 38g
Sat Fat 14.2
Protein 28.4g

I pureed the vegetables with the stock and strained everything into a large container.
I created the label for this series - "One Sauce-Five Meals".

I hope that this series of recipes will make it easier for a homemade dinner to appear at your family dinner table for 4 week night meals in under 30 minutes.