Oxtail soup for a cosy home

This is one of those cold weekdays that one would rather snuggle up in bed and forget about waking up. When I saw my husband off this morning, he felt so down having to go to work. There and then, I was reminded that he was working hard so that I could enjoy the life we had together. So I told him how much I appreciated his labor, and assured him that home would be awaiting his return with good rest and good food. Surely enough, he came back once work was over, and we had a comfy evening dining and unwinding. This is one of my favorite soup recipes for cold days like this. It's a soup rich in meat flavor, but light to the stomach. It's mostly vegetables.


Recipe: Oxtail vegetable soup


Ingredients for stock:
- 2-3 lb oxtail with bone
- 1 big onion
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 cups red wine
- water


Procedure:
Broil oxtail in oven until browned. Brown onion and garlic in juice of oxtail. Place browned oxtail, garlic and onion in slow cooker. Add red wine and bay leaf. Top with water to cover all ingredients. Use high setting to let boil. Then turn down to low setting and let cook for 8 hours. Let cool overnight. Since oxtail has bone and tendon, the stock will be jelly like. Skim off fat. Meat should come loose from bone easily. (When I save stock for future use, I keep it in small airtight jars without skimming off the fat. When the stock is cooled, the fat forms a hard cover on top to give extra insulation.)


Ingredients for soup (3-4 servings):
- 8 oz meat from oxtail, de-boned and trimmed of fat
- 4-6 cups oxtail stock. 
- 1 tp red wine vinegar
- dash of marjoram and basil
- mixed vegetables such as:
  1 small onion

  3-4 tomatoes

  2-3 leaves of cabbage
  1 leaf of red cabbage

  2 stock celery

  1 small zucchini
  2 carrots
  1 small eggplant

Procedure:
1. Chop all vegetables to about the same size around 1" long. (Optionally) brown them in oil in this order: onion, cabbages, celery, zucchini, carrots, tomatoes. Note: I don't brown eggplant.
2. Heat up stock. Add vinegar, onion, tomatoes and cabbages. Let cook for 15 minutes. Add carrots. Let cook for 15 minutes. Add all other vegetables, herbs and meat. Get soup to boil for 5 minutes. Then transfer to slow cooker on low setting to keep warm until serve. For fresh-tasting vegetables, do not keep warm for longer than 1 hour. If soup is not used at once, let it cool and reheat before serving.