Rabada

As tradition built it

Rabada

The oxtail cooks 50 minutes to an hour.

Ingredients

The rabada

• 1.5kg oxtail (2 tails), only the meaty pieces
• 1 large onion, finely diced
• 1 large tomato, finely diced
• 1 medium green pepper, finely diced
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped or pressed
• to taste black pepper
• 1 tbsp colorau
• to taste salt
• 1 litre water, boiled in a kettle, plus more as needed
• 6 maxixe
• 6 okra
• 200g jerimum (pumpkin)
• to taste cheiro verde (coriander and spring onion), chopped

The pirão

• 200g white cassava flour
• a little water
• as needed the rabada's broth

To serve

• to serve white rice

Method

1. Put the water on to boil in a kettle. Dice the onion, tomato and green pepper small.
2. Fry the onion, tomato and pepper in a large pan over a medium heat.
3. Add the garlic and black pepper, then the oxtail, and stir well.
4. Add hot water to about 3cm above the meat, salt it, cover and let it cook. As the broth dries, add more hot water. The meat takes 50 minutes to an hour.
5. Check the salt. Lay the maxixe, okra and jerimum on top, cover, and cook until a fork goes in. Lift them out so they do not fall apart. Scatter the cheiro verde over the meat.
6. For the pirão, moisten the cassava flour lightly with water so it does not go lumpy. Put it in a pan over a medium heat and keep adding broth, stirring, until it is cooked and thick.
7. Serve with the pirão and white rice.

Notes

The recipe is Celina Paiva's, of Fortaleza, written up by her daughter Izakeline Ribeiro for Sabores da Cidade. Her list has colorau, the annatto colouring, but her steps do not say when it goes in. The oxtail goes into the vegetables without browning first.

What a modern chef changes

A long even heat the stovetop only approximates

Method

1. Braise the browned oxtail sous vide at a controlled low temperature for many hours.
2. Reduce the aromatics and braising liquid separately to a tight sauce.
3. Finish the meat hard in a pan or over coals for a crust the water bath alone cannot give it.