Recipe for anemia

I lay astonishingly vanquished, a day after consuming my first meal treatment for anemia, enchanted with the pleasures of cooking under the direction of Escoffier. What better way to play the hand of a rainy day and anemic diagnosis? No sooner had the blood test results returned with potential blood transfusion numbers, than I began the hunt for ingredients and recipes. Such an ailment as anemia should be enjoyed, and I hereby respectfully submit the notion that not only should we choose sustainably produced meat, we should prepare it with our hearts set on pleasureful flavor. Pumping iron into my blood is not solely a quick cutting of greens from the garden, served alongside grilled venison from the chest freezer. Nor is it the option of slugging back supplements before, during and after my meals, pill-popping like a Tic-Tac addict.

Anemia has delightfully thrown me into another realm of gastronomy: my baby steps with haute cuisine. It’s like French Vogue for chefs, except you’ll find more affordable items on the ingredients list than those draped across the pages of such a fashion magazine. Outside drizzle obliterating leaf-raking from my chores list, I selected a five-pound tomb from the sagging cookbook shelves, spinning the pages like a globe trotter determining his next destination. My months-ago randomly purchased inspiration: two pounds of oxtail sitting clumped frozen and neglected at the chest freezer’s bottom depths. Luigi Carnacina and his “Great Italian Cooking” led the way to enlightenment with a selection of four recipes.

How to put this . . . cooking Carnacina (who learned from Escoffier), turned into a ‘make-your-own-adventure’ at ingredient number six: Brown Stock. Hereby instructed to refer to recipe No. 4 in his book, I flipped half the book over in search of this key element. Short about five different pices of meat, and anticipating an addition of five hours to my meal preparation, I took swift stock of my rainy day ambitions. So this is what it takes? No time like the present to solve another of life’s great mysteries. If he could do it, and has written it for me to follow, it must be some insanely tasty dish. Car keys and I launched into the chilly mist.

The grocery store pulsed with Halloween night sugar supplies. Shopper’s carts overflowed with colors and boxes unbeknownst to any honest food. I darted through the cleaning supplies aisle and rapped at the meat counter’s set of swinging doors. Then I popped my head in, just in time to see a three-inch diameter bone getting cut and wrapped. Finding an amiable white frock, I gave him my list and asked for some of the huge bones with marrow. Together we hunted down some shin meat (bone and meat, but not veal, as I wanted to watch cost), soup beef (shank, cubed), raw ham, pork rind, and spicy pork sausages. Discussing my preliminary goal of stock and secondary goal of an oxtail dish, he pronounced it sounded like a fine meal. I suppose an invitation should have been forthcoming from me. How odd that such an extension of shared culinary pleasure no longer naturally comes to one in these times?

We’d better start chopping while you are still reading. What follows produced an exquisite meal, forever changing my approach to cooking meat. Three cheers for little Buckie and Hamburger, currently eating their way through our pasture. May they one day encounter such a fine fate.

Start with a Brown Stock. You’ll need 1/2 pound cracked soup bones; 1 lb. veal shin (bone and meat, I used regular beef!); 1 lb. lean soup beef (shank or shin) in 2-inch cubes; 1 Tbs butter or rendered beef fat; 8 ounces lean raw ham, diced; 2 ounces pork rind, in one piece; 1 medium carrot, diced; 1 stalk celery with leaves, chopped; 1 clove; 1 bay leaf; 1 clove garlic; 4 sprigs parsley; 2 sprigs thyme; 1 tsp salt; 8 cups water.

Brown the bones, veal shin, and beef cubes for 15 minutes in a 450 degree oven. Melt the butter in a large, heavy pot over medium heat and add the ham, pork rind, carrot, celery, and onion. Arrange the meat and bones on top, add 1/2 cup of the water, and cook until the water has evaporated. Remove the rind. Add remainder of water, salt, clove, bay leaf, garlic, parsley and thyme. Brind to a rapid boil, reduce heat and simmer 4 to 5 hours, skimming scum from top and replenishing water if needed. Remove from flame and strain immediately through hair sieve or cheesecloth-lined colander. Chill, and remove fat before using. Makes about 1. 5 quarts. For a meat glaze, reduce this even further until it becomes syrupy.

You’ll also need a quantity of kneaded butter, which is slightly softened butter mixed with an equal amount of flour. I used 4 Tbs butter, somewhat melted, and 4 Tbs flour, and just mushed them together in a small saucepan. Set this aside.

You’ll also need some enhanced tomato sauce. Heat 2 Tbs olive oil in a saucepan. Add 1/2 a chopped onion, 4 Tbs ham, chopped, and brown them over fairly high heat for 5 to 6 minutes. Add 1 Tbs flour and mix well. Turn the heat down to medium and add 2 lbs fresh tomatoes (or 1 16 oz. can Italian-style plum tomatoes, drained). Season with 1 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, 1 tsp sugar, 1 sprig thyme and a bay leaf. Cook 45 minutes, stirring occassionally. You can strain it if you like.(Clearly this process is easier if you have some seasoned tomato sauce frozen or canned and awaiting selection from your pantry!)

Let’s get to that tail. For Oxtail Italiana, you’ll need: 4 lbs cut-up oxtail; 2 carrots, sliced; 2 onions, sliced; 1 stalk celery, sliced; 3 sprigs parsley; 2 sprigs thyme; 1 bay leaf; 3 cups Brown Stock; 3 cups dry white wine (I used 1 cup of Vermouth instead); salt and pepper; 3 Tbs butter; 1 clove garlic, crushed; 1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced; 4 Tbs kneaded butter; 1 cup Tomato sauce; 3 sweet Italian sausages, sauteed for about 15 minutes and sliced.

Whew! Make yourself a cocktail while you’re at it. This is a thing of beauty. Put the pieces of oxtail in a large, heavy pot with the sliced vegetables and the herbs. Add the stock and wine and sufficient water to barely cover the pieces of oxtail. Season lightly with salt and pepper, bring to a boil, cover the pot and simmer over very low heat for 3 to 4 hours, or until the oxtail meat is very tender and will separate easily from the bones. While the oxtail is simmering, melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat, add the garlic, cook for 1 minutes, add the mushrooms, and saute gently for about 8 minutes; remove from the heat and reserve. When the oxtail is fully cooked, remove the pieces from the pot. Strain the cooking liquid through a fine sieve, return it to the pot (should be about 4 cups; reduce over high heat to this quantity, if necessary), bring to a boil, blend in the kneaded butter with a whisk, add the tomato sauce, and simmer for 10 minutes. Correct the seasoning and then add the oxtail pieces, mushrooms, and sausage. Simmer for 5 minutes and then turn the contents of the pot out into a deep hot serving dish. Serves 6.

I served this with some gratineed celery, recipe No. 1659 in Carnacina’s book. We’ll save that for another time . . . but do note that this dish is best served with biscuits or bread to mop up the amazing sauce.

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