Gulai Buntut (Veal Oxtail Curry)

You know, I have been missing my schedules of posting a recipe a week. I am not quitting this commitment (yes, keeping a blog is a sort of commitment), it just lately I have been failing at cooking good recipes and or failing at taking a good picture of the success meal itself. 

However, I managed to successfully cook this yummy veal oxtail curry (Gulai Buntut). Yes, gulai always, always needs a lot of spices, but that's the key to its rich flavor. I cooked this curry for hours on low heat in a Dutch-Oven (slow cooking pot). The veal oxtail became so juicy and and tender, the meat was easily undone yet it still had a slight of chewy-ness from it's tendon-y part. And the sauce, ogawd it was delicious, packed full of flavors. 

Ingredients:
1 kg of veal oxtail
2 daun Salam (Indonesian Bayleaf)
2 Kaffir lime leaves
2 lemongrass, trimmed and knotted
2 cm fresh ginger
2 cm fresh galangal
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1/4 tsp white pepper powder
1/2 tsp caraway
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
1 1/4 tbsp shredded gula jawa (Indonesian palm sugar)
500 ml coconut milk
300 ml water
oil for sautée
2 tsp of beef stock powder (and or salt to taste)

Spice to paste: 
10 fresh Thai chili (adjust to your taste or use sweet pepper instead to get the chili flavour without the heat)
5 shallots
3 garlic
3 candlenuts
1 cm fresh turmeric

Cooking steps: 

1. Put all ingredients to paste into a food processor and pulse until it becomes a smooth paste, 
2. In a slow cooking pot (Dutch oven) sautée the paste with oil on medium heat, add daun salam, lemongrass, ginger, galangal, coriander, white pepper, caraway, and cinamon, continue cooking until golden and smells fragrant (the liquid from the ingredients is evaporated and you can see the oil around the paste),
3. Add the veal oxtail and continue cooking until the meat become pale and stiff, 
4. Add coconut milk, water, shredded gula jawa and beef stock, stir regularly until it boils, 
5. Put the lid on, lower the heat and continue cooking until the meat is tender enough to your liking, stir from times to time. 
6. Once the oxtail meat is tender enough, continue cooking for a few more minutes without the lid to let the water evaporates and the sauce thickens. 
7. Et voila, this flavorful curry is ready to be served with a bowl of cooked rice !