On weekends, let’s cook delicious and nutritious meals for the family. TasteVN will share with you 2 ways to make hot pot with beef tail and medicinal herbs to treat the whole family!
1. Beef Tail Hot Pot with Taro
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Preparation
1 hour
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Difficulty
Medium
Ingredients for Beef Tail Hot Pot with Taro For 4 people
Beef tail 1 kg Beef tendon 500 grams Taro 300 grams Lotus root 300 grams Pineapple 1/4 piece Lemongrass 100 grams Satay 2 teaspoons Fermented fish sauce 4 tablespoons Chopped shallots 1 tablespoon Chopped garlic 1 tablespoon Chili powder 1 tablespoon Red cashew nuts 1 tablespoon Crushed ginger a little Chili 2 pieces Lime juice 200 ml White wine 400 ml Cooking oil 2 tablespoons Common spices a little (salt/pepper/sugar/MSG)
Implementation tools
How to choose fresh and delicious ingredients
How to choose delicious taro
- You should choose taro tubers of moderate size, when cut open, they have a cloudy white color and many purple veins, which are usually tubers with many nutrients good for health.
- Another note is to buy taro in season for the best quality (usually harvested in November – December of the Gregorian calendar).
How to choose fresh and delicious lotus root
- Choose mature lotus roots by pressing the stem with your finger; if it feels firm, it’s good. At the same time, when using a knife to cut, mature lotus roots are harder to cut than young ones.
- You should choose lotus root segments that are both thick and short because they will be riper and have a better flavor.
- The exterior of the lotus root should be plump, with no unusual bumps or dimples, and no strange smell.
- The skin of the lotus root should be yellow; avoid choosing white-skinned lotus roots as they may be chemically bleached.
- The larger the air holes inside the lotus root, the more water it contains and the better the taste.
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How to prepare Beef tail hotpot with taro
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Preparing ingredients
Put the beef tail on the charcoal fire (this step can be done by the seller for you) then scrape off all the hair and burnt parts, then wash clean with salt water.
Chop the beef tail at the joints into pieces, then put them in a pot, cover with water, add a few smashed slices of ginger, and boil until cooked, then remove and let drain.
Peel the lotus root and taro, wash clean, then cut into bite-sized pieces. Cut the lemongrass into sections and smash it.
Note: After peeling, soak the lotus root in diluted lemon water for 5 – 10 minutes to keep it crispy and prevent browning.
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Marinating Oxtail
Add the mixture of satay, half of the minced shallots, chili powder, and half of the minced garlic into a pot.
Add 1 spoon of sugar, 1 teaspoon of monosodium glutamate, 1 teaspoon of salt, mix well, and then add the oxtail to marinate for about 2 hours to absorb the spices.
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Stewing Beef Tendon
Wash the beef tendon with diluted salt water. Boil a pot of water, then add the beef tendon along with smashed lemongrass for about 5 – 7 minutes, then remove to a bowl and cut into bite-sized pieces.
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Stewing Oxtail
Put the beef tendon into another pot along with 500ml of water, stew for 20 – 25 minutes until tender. Wait until it cools down, then take it out and set aside.
Add the marinated oxtail into the pot with 1 liter of water and cut lemongrass, stew for about 15 minutes, then turn off the heat and open the lid to wait for it to cool before removing. Keep the broth for making soup base.
Sauté the remaining minced shallots and garlic with 1 tablespoon of cooking oil, then add the stewed oxtail and beef tendon, stir-fry for 5 minutes, then turn off the heat.
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Cooking beef tail hotpot broth
Add cooking oil to another pan with cashew nuts to extract color, filter out the nuts, keeping the color, and add it to the pot of beef tail broth.
Bring the pot of beef tail broth to a boil, then season with salt, sugar, and MSG to taste.
Next, add the tendons, beef tail, taro, and lotus root to cook together. Cook until the taro and lotus root are tender, then season again before turning off the heat.
Note: When frying the cashew nuts, wait until the oil is very hot before adding the nuts.
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Making the dipping sauce
Chop pineapple and chili, then add to the shrimp paste along with minced garlic and stir well. Next, mix this with lime juice and sugar to taste the sweet and sour.
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Final product
Keep the hotpot warm and dip the vegetables along with the homemade dipping sauce for a delicious meal. The tender meat combined with the chewy tendons of beef and the sweet pieces of taro make the hotpot even more appealing.
2. Traditional herbal beef tail hotpot
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Preparation
1 hour
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Difficulty level
Medium
Ingredients for Chinese Herbal Beef Tail Hot Pot Serves 5 people
Beef tail 800 gr White tofu 100 gr Beef balls 300 gr Goji berries / star anise / cinnamon A little Jujube 10 gr Lemongrass 4 stalks Ginger 1 bulb White radish 1 bulb Shallots 3 bulbs Onion 1/2 bulb Garlic 6 cloves Satay 1 teaspoon Fermented tofu 3 pieces Black soy sauce 1.5 tablespoons Rock sugar 2 tablespoons White wine A little Cooking oil 1 tablespoon Common spices A little (salt/sugar/MSG/seasoning powder)
Tools for preparation
How to choose fresh and delicious ingredients
How to choose good white tofu
- To select good tofu that does not contain gypsum, choose pieces that are off-white, avoiding those that are yellowish or fully yellow.
- Choose pieces that feel light and smooth, as these are good tofu.
- Fresh and pure tofu will have a distinctive fragrant smell, while tofu with impurities will have a faint smell like lime.
- When cooking, pure tofu will have a fragrant and rich soybean aroma. Tofu with impurities will have a slightly bitter taste.
How to choose fresh and delicious radishes
- You should choose white radishes that are fresh, smooth-skinned, tapering towards the tail, and feel firm rather than too soft. Avoid radishes that are bruised, have cracks, or are missing a corner.
- Radishes should have a uniform color, without black or yellow spots, and the skin should be intact.
- You should buy radishes that still have leaves because that indicates they are still fresh.
Where to buy various Chinese herbal spices
- You can choose to buy Chinese herbal spices like goji berries, star anise, and cinnamon at markets, supermarkets, food stores, or reputable herbal ingredient shops.
- When buying, make sure the ingredients have a strong herbal aroma, are not moldy, damp, leaking, or have an unusual smell.
How to prepare Chinese herbal beef tail hotpot
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Prepare and marinate the beef tail
After buying the beef tail, scrape off all the hair and then wash it with diluted salt water, followed by rinsing with white wine and sliced ginger, then wash it clean with water.
Season the beef tail with 2 spoons of seasoning powder, 1/2 teaspoon of monosodium glutamate, 1 teaspoon of sugar, and 2/3 teaspoon of salt, then mix well to allow the beef tail to absorb the spices.
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Prepare other ingredients
Lemongrass is smashed and then chopped finely. Ginger is chopped small and then crushed. Shallots and garlic are minced.
Tofu is washed clean, dried with paper towels, and then cut into bite-sized cubes.
White radish is washed clean and cut into small pieces. Onion is cut into wedges.
See more: Tips for cutting onions without crying
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Sautéed Oxtail
Add 1 tablespoon of cooking oil to the pan, when the oil is hot, add shallots, garlic, lemongrass, and ginger and sauté until fragrant, then add the oxtail and stir-fry. When the oxtail is slightly browned, add star anise and cinnamon and continue to stir-fry until the oxtail is well browned.
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Stew Oxtail
Add the oxtail along with the sautéed ingredients into the pressure cooker, add white radish and about 1 liter of water, and proceed to stew for about 40 minutes.
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Cooking Hot Pot
Put the beef tail and broth in another pot on the stove, add jujube and goji berries, then season the broth with 1 tablespoon of seasoning granules, 1/3 tablespoon of monosodium glutamate, 1/2 tablespoon of salt, 2 tablespoons of rock sugar, and 1.5 tablespoons of black soy sauce.
When the water boils, add beef balls into the pot, stir well until the beef balls are cooked, then turn off the heat, add tofu and onion to complete the dish.
To make the dipping sauce for the hot pot, mix 3 pieces of chao evenly with 2 teaspoons of sugar, 1 teaspoon of satay, and a little lemongrass.
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Final Product
Beef tail hot pot with a quite simple recipe brings an attractive, delicious dish, with the hot, rich broth combined with tender, tasty beef tail, dipping the beef tail in chao is simply the best!
How to choose fresh and delicious oxtail
- To buy good oxtail, you must choose the meat from the tail that is bright red. Because dark red oxtail meat is not good oxtail.
- The fat of the oxtail must be bright yellow, the tendons white and firm when pressed. If it feels soft when you press it, you should not buy it.
- Finally, you must press the oxtail with your hand. If it is good oxtail, you will find that the meat has good elasticity and no unpleasant smell.
How to clean oxtail without odor
- Put the oxtail over charcoal (you can ask the seller to help with this step) and scrape off all the hair and burnt parts, then wash it thoroughly with salt water.
- To prevent the oxtail from smelling, wash it with white wine and use crushed ginger to rub the outside, then rinse with water.
Types of vegetables to accompany oxtail hot pot
- Includes vegetables such as: water spinach, amaranth, napa cabbage, green mustard,…
- For the vegetables you buy, cut off the bad leaves that are not edible or the vegetables that have wilted, then wash them again with water and they are ready to use.
See more:
With the steps and tips above, TasteVN hopes you will successfully make this beef tail hot pot!
*Refer to images and recipes from: eva.vn, baogiadinhso.com, and Wife’s Kitchen
