Slow Cooker Red Curry and Wine Ox Tail Stew (燉紅酒紅咖哩醬牛尾, Dan6 Hung4 Zau2 Hung4 Gaa3 Lei1 Zoeng3 Ngau4 Mei5)

This recipe, using beef oxtails, is very similar to the previous posted recipe: Slow Cooker Red Wine Spicy Bean Paste Ox Tail Stew (燉紅酒春辣醬牛尾, Dan⁶ Hung⁴ Zau² Ceon¹ Laat⁶ Zoeng³ Ngau⁴ Mei⁵). In this case, a Thai red curry is the basis for the sauce rather than spicy bean paste. Red wine is also substituted for coconut milk, which usually used in a Thai curry. So you can think of this as a curry based red wine ox tail stew. The red curry is stir fried with the beef oxtails before placing into the slow cooker. Stir frying the meat in the curry is a standard method to bring out the flavor of the curry in the dish. I used to use a fat strainer to remove the excess fat from the cooked sauce, but I found that if I remove the outside fat layer from the ox tails before cooking, there’s no need.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

4 lb.	2 kg.	Beef oxtails (牛尾, ngau4 mei5), already cut into 2-inch (5 cm.) pieces
1 in.	2.5 cm.	Knob of ginger (薑, goeng1), crushed in a garlic press
6 cloves	6 cloves	Garlic (蒜, syun3), crushed in a garlic press
½ cup	125 ml.	Soy sauce (豉油, si6 jau4)
2 Tbs.	30 ml.	Hoisin sauce (海鮮醬, hoi2 sin1 zoeng3)
½ cup	125 ml.	Red wine (紅酒, hung4 zau2)
½ tsp.	2.5 ml.	Ground white pepper (白胡椒, baak6 wu4 ziu1)
1 Tbs.	15 ml.	Sesame oil (麻油, maa4 jau4)
3 Tbs.	45 ml.	Tapioca Starch (木薯澱粉, muk6 syu4 din6 fan2)
4 oz.	114 g.	One can Maesri Brand Red Curry Paste (紅咖哩醬, hung4  gaa3 lei1 zoeng3) or equivalent
1 lb.	500 g.	Carrots (紅蘿蔔, hung4 lo4 baak6), cut on the diagonal to ¾-inch (2 cm.) pieces
1 lb.	500 g.	Daikon (白蘿蔔, baak6 lo4 baak6), quartered and then cut into ¾-inch (2 cm.) pieces
12	12	Whole dried Shiitake mushrooms (冬菇, dung1 gu1), rehydrated
2	2	Dried bean curd sticks (腐竹, fu6 zuk1), rehydrated and cut into 1-inch (2.5 cm.) pieces
		Red wine to cover the oxtails in the slow cooker
		Oil for cooking

Equipment

14 in.	35.5 cm.	Wok or pan
6.5 qt.	6 L.	Slow cooker (crock pot) to cook the stew

Instructions

Untrimmed and Trimmed Beef Ox Tail

Maesri Brand Red Curry Paste
(紅咖哩醬, hung⁴  gaa³ lei¹ zoeng³)

1. Purchase already cut, or have your butcher cut, beef oxtails into 2-inch (5 cm.) pieces. Remove the silver skin and fat from the exterior of the oxtails. You will not be able to remove all the silver and fat from the exterior, but the more removed means less fat in the sauce.
2. Marinate the beef in a covered container for at least one hour or overnight in the refrigerator with the ginger and garlic crushed in a garlic press, corn starch, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, red wine (reserve the rest of the bottle for later use), ground white pepper, and sesame oil. If marinating the beef overnight, take it out of the refrigerator before placing the entire contents into the slow cooker. Remove the beef oxtails, leaving the marinating liquid in the slow cooker. Remove as much liquid from the beef oxtails as possible (a paper towel works well) to facilitate browning the beef later in a wok.
3. Add the tapioca starch to the slow cooker and mix thoroughly with the marinade. The tapioca starch will thicken the sauce even when cooked for the long time needed in a slow cooker.
4. Pour boiling water over the dried bean curd sticks in a heat proof bowl and rehydrate the bean curd for at least one hour or overnight. Drain the water from the bean curd sticks and cut into 1-inch (2.5 cm.) pieces.
5. Pour boiling water over the dried Shiitake mushrooms in a heat proof bowl and rehydrate the mushrooms for at least one hour. Remove the Shiitake mushrooms from the rehydration liquid and remove the stems. Reserve the rehydration liquid for possible later use in the cooking process. If you need to rehydrate the Shiitake mushrooms quickly, use the method described here: Technique: How to Quickly Rehydrate Dried Shiitake Mushrooms (冬菇, Dung¹ Gu¹).
6. Wash and cut the carrots into ¾-inch (2 cm.) pieces.
7. Wash and cut the daikon into quarters, and cut each quarter into ¾-inch (2 cm.) pieces.
8. Heat a wok or pan over high heat before adding oil, and then the beef ox tails and some of the red curry paste. Brown all sides of the beef oxtails in batches (so be sure to proportionally use the red curry paste with each batch) and reheat the wok over high heat before adding more oil. Deglaze the wok with red wine and transfer the browned beef to the slow cooker.
9. Brown the mushrooms, bean curd sticks, carrots, and daikon individually before adding each ingredient to the slow cooker in that order. Deglaze the pan with red wine after browning the last vegetable (daikon), adding the liquid to the slow cooker.
10. The liquid in the slow cooker should just cover all the beef oxtails. If this is not the case, add more red wine to the slow cooker. If there’s not enough red wine left in the bottle, use the Shiitake mushroom rehydration liquid.
11. Cover the slow cooker and cook on low for up to 8 hours.
12. After cooking is complete, the contents of the slow cooker should be transferred to the serving plate, and serve with Clay Pot Rice (煲仔飯, Bou¹ Zai² Faan⁶) or steamed rice.