By Request: Get into spirit of the zodiac with oxtail

The Year of the Rat is about to give way to the Year of the Ox, which brought to mind: oxtails.

This humble cut is the basis of soups in many of the Asian and Southeast Asian countries that take the first new moon of the lunar calendar as the true kickoff of the year. You could go on a culinary oxtail tour in honor of this year’s zodiac creature, sipping your way through a worldly variety of soups.

And then you could start in on oxtail stews. Another new moon will be rising before you’re done.

I went through a stack of recipes — Korean sokko­ritang, spiced up with a hefty amount of chiles, garlic and sesame oil; Vietnamese oxtail pho, the beef stock flavored with star anise, cinnamon, cloves and other warm spices; Chinese soups that ran the gamut from simple beef soups to a tomato-based Hong Kong version …

I settled on a recipe in “Flavorwalla” by the late chef Floyd Cardoz, who has been my kitchen spirit guide through the pandemic. Cardoz writes of happily sucking meat from oxtails as a child in Bombay (now Mumbai), India. His recipe creates a clean beef stock, with chiles, peppercorns and shiitake mushrooms (both caps and soaking water, which provide plenty of umami).

With that as a starting point, I emphasized the things I love most in oxtail soup, upping the quotient of daikon, shiitakes and ginger, and throwing in mustard cabbage, because there are no rules here.

The recipe allows plenty of room for more vamping — some star anise at the start, maybe, or some rice noodles at the end.

However you do it, I suggest making this a two-day project, cooking the oxtails first and creating that delicious stock, then refrigerating it all overnight. The next day you can remove the congealed fat and continue on.

I made my soup in an Instant Pot, but it is also easily done on the stove: Simmer the oxtails about 2 hours, then finish off the recipe as written, also on the stovetop. If you have eight hours, a slow cooker would work, too.

MULTICOOKER OXTAIL SOUP WITH CHILES

Adapted from “Flavorwalla” by Floyd Cardoz (Artisan, 2016)

• 3 pounds oxtails
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 3 cups dried shiitake mushrooms
• 4 cups boiling water
• 2 cups sliced onion
• 4 cloves garlic, smashed
• 4-inch piece ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
• 3-4 small red chile peppers, split in half, or more, to taste
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 1 pound daikon, peeled, sliced in 1/2-inch thick half-moons
• 1 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped
• 1 pound mustard cabbage, sliced
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce or fish sauce, or to taste

Rinse oxtails; pat dry. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper; let sit at room temperature 30 minutes.

Soak mushrooms in boiling water until soft, about 15 minutes. Remove mushrooms, reserving soaking water. Cut off mushrooms stems; discard. Cut mushroom caps in half. Strain any impurities out of soaking water.

Place oxtails in multicooker with onion, garlic, ginger, chile peppers and peppercorns. Add reserved mushroom liquid and enough water to reach fill line. Seal pot and pressure-cook on high 25 minutes.

Let pressure drop 10 minutes, then release remaining pressure and carefully open pot. Meat should be very soft. Skim fat.

Stir in mushrooms, daikon and cilantro. Continue cooking, using saute function to simmer 10 minutes. Add mustard cabbage and simmer until daikon is tender and cabbage is wilted, another 5 minutes. Taste broth and season with soy sauce as needed. Serves 8.

>> MAKE AHEAD: After pressure-cooking the oxtails, remove meat and other solids; refrigerate meat and liquid separately. When ready to complete dish, scoop fat from liquid, then continue recipe in a pot on stovetop.

Approximate nutritional information, per serving (not including salt to taste or optional ingredients): 280 calories, 12 g fat, 5 g saturated fat, 95 mg cholesterol, 450 mg sodium, 16 g carbohydrate, 4 g fiber, 5 g sugar, 29 g protein.

Write By Request, Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, Honolulu 96813; or email requests to bshimabukuro@staradvertiser.com.