A rich lip-sticking broth, brimming over with flavour, colour and life-giving goodness. A rich, hearty and warming soup with light, rice noodles and meltingly tender oxtail. A marvellous restorative soup any time of the year.
Place the oxtails on a roasting tray and roast for 30 minutes, turning once after 15 minutes.
For Instant Pot
Place the oxtails into the Instant Pot along with all the other broth ingredients. Pour over 8 cups of water. Attach the lid, set to high pressure cook for 2 hours.
After 2 hours, release the pressure and carefully remove the meat from the pan to cool.
For stove top
Place the oxtails into a large casserole pan with all the other broth ingredients. Pour over 8 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to very low, so that the liquid is barely simmering. Simmer very gently, covered, for 6 hours.
Carefully remove the meat from the pan and leave it to cool.
Finishing the soup
Using a fine mesh sieve, strain the soup and discard the solids. If you have a lot of fat on top, you can skim this off with a spoon or use a gravy separator (these are marvellous). Keep the broth warm on a low heat.
Once the meat has cooled enough to handle, pick apart the meat from the fat, bone and cartilage. Keep the meat, discard everything else. Set aside.
Cook your noodles to the packet instructions. Once cooked, drain and place a small mound in the centre of an Asian soup bowl or deep soup bowl then pop on top a little meat.
Add 4-5 ladles of piping hot broth per person and then sprinkle over some spring onion. That's it! Enjoy!
Video
Notes
Serving
Serve hot garnished with the spring onion scattered on top.
Add Asian greens to the soup.e.g. Bok Choy or Chinese Celery
Add turnip and carrot. Either cook them separately, or in the drained broth until soft.
Substitutions
You can use flour or egg noodles instead of rice noodles.
If you can't get oxtails, use beef bones.
You can make a pork version of the soup by using pork bones or ribs.
Storage
Fridge: The broth and meat will stay fresh in the fridge for about a week in airtight containers.
Freezer: Freeze the broth and meat (together or separately) in a container and it'll stay good for 3+ months.
The noodles are best eaten fresh and will not be great in texture if left in the soup. I would recommend only refrigerating or freezing the broth and meat and not the noodles. Cook noodles fresh when you want to eat the soup.