Recipe: Pork belly oxtail soup

The latest addition to my kitchen is this lovely bright orange 6.75-qt. Dutch (French) oven from Le Creuset. Le Creuset is a sponsor of my cooking show, Four Senses, and after being surrounded by their pretty cookware on set during season 2 production, I wanted a piece for myself.This is my first piece of Le Creuset. I’ve heard praises sung for their French ovens, so I was stoked to get one right in time for winter when stews and roasts rule the kitchen. I got mine in a bright orange, just to make sure I don’t miss the thing sitting on my stove. ;) Orange is also the color for inducing appetite and socialability (while blue suppresses them).I read some forums online to see which size and shape I should get. Many claim the round ensures more even cooking on the stove, but isn’t the point of the cast iron inside the enamel to distribute heat evenly? Plus I thought about all the lamb shank and whole birds and rump roasts cooking away slowly in the French oven, and my gut told me to go with the oval. Then there was the matter of size. My kitchen has very limited storage space already, but the larger (to hold all the future frying chicken and beignets), the better. A 6.75-qt. oven is efficiently sized, but not too jumbo where it’s unwieldy. And I can still pull it from the oven without snapping an elbow. (That’s the only reason I’m working out these days, you know: to lift food out of the oven and into my mouth.)I love the effectiveness of Le Creuset’s enamel-coated cast iron—it gives you the best of both worlds: the high heat stability and distribution of cast iron with the attractiveness and easy-to-clean advantage of brightly colored enamel. You can brown meats on the stove, and then slide it right into the oven, and there’s your one-pot meal.The first thing I made in my Le Creuset French oven was this pork belly oxtail soup. I was so excited to cook with it, I didn’t even bother to make it to the grocery store—I ended up throwing random things I had in my fridge and pantry into the pot, and the result was pretty darn fantastic. Simple and delicious, this soup will warm you up on a cold autumn evening. If the Blind can Cook it, you can too.

Recipe: Pork Belly Oxtail Soup

Notes: Fresh ginger would be a nice touch but alas, I’d had none. You could also serve with lime wedges or other herbs. The hubs had it low-carb as prepared in the recipe straight up. I turned mine into a noodle soup by ladling it over fresh egg noodles. As we are only a family of two and not monsters, we froze the rest for a future winter day when we’re too lazy to cook.

Ingredients

1. 2 to 3 lbs pork belly, trimmed
2. 1 to 2 lbs oxtail, cut into 1.5” slices
3. 1 tbsp cooking oil
4. 1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
5. 4 cloves garlic, minced
6. 1 star anise
7. 1 cinnamon stick, halved lengthwise
8. 3 whole cloves
9. 1 tsp coriander seeds
10. 1 qt beef or chicken broth
11. 4 tbsp soy sauce or to taste
12. 3 tbsp fish sauce or to taste
13. 2 tbsp sugar
14. thinly sliced scallion for garnish
15. finely chopped coriander for garnish

Instructions

1. Fill enough water in the Le Creuset to cover the pork belly and oxtail. Bring to a boil for 5 min or so to get rid of the scum. Rinse par-boiled meats and transfer to a bowl, discard water, and clean pot.
2. Heat cooking oil in Le Creuset over medium-high heat, and sauté onion until fragrant. Add garlic, star anise, cinnamon stick, cloves, and coriander seeds; stir-fry until aromatic. Add pork belly and oxtail back to the pot, and give it all another quick stir.
3. Add beef or chicken broth, and then enough water to cover all ingredients by approx 2”. Stir in soy sauce, fish sauce, and sugar; season with salt and pepper. Bring to boil before reducing heat. Cover and simmer until meats are tender and cooked through, approx 1 to 2 hrs, occasionally seasoning to taste.
4. Ladle into bowls and garnish with scallion and coriander.

Preparation time: 15 min
Cook time: 2 hrs
Yields: 8 servings