How to get glowing skin? Well, you need to eat food rich in collagen. Consuming collagen-rich foods regularly results in higher skin elasticity levels and reduced lines and wrinkles’ appearance. Collagen isn’t only for smooth, elastic skin. It may also help with joint pain, muscles, or digestion. Collagen is gut healing too. An excellent option for getting large amounts of collagen is an oxtail. It is a collagen bomb and deserves the name of glowing skin superfood.
What is oxtail and how to cook it?
Oxtail is a tail of beef cattle or veal. Butchers sell it cross cut in sections. Since it is a tail, it is thick at one end and thin at the other, so cuts differ in size, which means you’ll usually get a few big meaty pieces and a few tiny ones.
It consists mainly of bone, cartilage, connective tissue, and little meat. Oxtail is very bony, but this is where the robust beef taste comes. The flesh in this cut is quite tough. Because of this and because it has a lot of cartilage and connective tissue, it needs to be cooked slowly for a long time using the braising method. It helps melt all that chewy bits into gelatine, giving a succulent taste to the meat and creamy, delicious collagen rich sauce.
So, if you are looking for something different than your usual dinner, I can highly recommend braised oxtail.
About this recipe
This meal is a real collagen bomb. Therefore, it is a powerful skin superfood that has gut-healing powers too. High amounts of collagen help heal gut walls and are beneficial for people with a problematic gut.
This particular recipe is easily digestible and shouldn’t cause bloating because it is low in FODMAPs (short-chain carbohydrates and sugar alcohols that are poorly absorbed by the body, resulting in abdominal pain and bloating). Nevertheless, it is very rich in taste and texture. It already has starchy vegetables – carrot and parsnip in it, that cooks into a delicious thick sauce. Therefore, I suggest serving this meal with some fresh juicy vegetables like cucumber, tomato, or lettuce.
BRAISED OXTAIL WITH CARROT AND PARSNIP
Yield: serves four
prep time: 15 MINUTES
Cook time: 6 HOURS
total time: 6 HOURS 15 MINUTES
INGREDIENTS
- 1 tbsp of ghee or olive oil
- 1 kg oxtail
- salt and pepper to taste
- bay leaf
- 1 tsp fresh thyme
- 1 carrot
- 1 parsnip
- 1 cup of stock or water
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat the oven to 130 C or 270 F.
- Dry the oxtails well with paper towels. This will help to get a nice brown exterior when searing.
- Heat ghee or olive oil over high heat in a heavy cast-iron Dutch oven or brasier. Once hot, sear all sides of oxtail cuts. Once they’ve developed a brown crust, remove the oxtails from the pan and set them aside. If your pot isn’t wide enough to hold all of the oxtails in one layer with space in between, sear the meat in batches. If the pan is crowded, the oxtails won’t brown nicely on all sides.
- Lower the heat to medium and add chopped carrot and parsnip to the braiser; sauté for a couple of minutes or so, until the vegetables are slightly softer. Then add 1 cup of stock or water and use a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula to loosen all the brown bits from the pot’s bottom.
- Return the oxtails to the pot along with bay leaves and thyme, and season with salt and pepper. If your pot isn’t wide enough to hold all of the oxtail pieces in one layer, you might need to add a bit more stock or water.
- Firstly, raise the heat and bring the liquid to a boil. Secondly, cover with a tight-fitting lid and transfer your pot to the preheated oven.
- Cook for 6 hours.
- Enjoy this collagen bomb meal.
