Happy Beef day!

So, my lovely and delightful French Republican Calendar translated today’s celebratory fauna, boeuf, as “ox.” When I glanced at the week to prepare recipes, I saw “ox” and immediately thought of the delicious oxtail fried rice I had at Blue Ribbon Sushi in Las Vegas. Only today when looking at the calendar again did I notice that the french word for 25 Grape Harvest is boeuf. Without a Larousse in front of me, my riff on this is that “boeuf” as an animal is translated as ox, but as a food, would more naturally be translated as beef. One thinks immediately of boeuf bourguignon. At any rate, no harm done. I’ve attemted to reconstruct the delicious fried rice and I think I was mostly successful.

For whatever it’s worth (and bringing if full circle, linguistically) we were having dinner at Boeufhaus and at the empty table next to us, the hostess sat Hot Doug and Mindy Segal. It was the greatest night of Darius’ life. They talked about their favorite restaurants in Vegas and NYC and Darius and I eavesdropped terribly. They both agreed that the ox tail fried rice at Blue Ribbon was amazing.

Ox tail Fried Rice 

1/4 lb ox tail

1/2 cup beef stock

1/2 cup of diced shiitake mushrooms

2 tbs Soy sauce

2 tbs mirin

1 tbs sesame seed oil

1/2 cup slivered daikon

2 cups day-0ld cooked rice

scallions

For the egg

1 egg

1 tbs water

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp corn starch

dash of salt

First, brown the pieces of ox tail in a hot pan with some canola oil. When sufficiently browned, transfer to a oven-proof pan and add the beef stock. Cover and cook at 350 until the meat is tender. Remove and let cool and then cut the meat off the bone. Set aside.

For the egg crepe, whisk together the egg, water, sugar, corn starch and salt. Pour the mixture through a sieve to get rid of some of the egg solids. Heat a pan you prefer to use to make crepes with a small amount of canola oil. Your egg mixture will make three egg crepes. Pour a third of the mixture and cook for thirty seconds and then flip the crepe. Repeat x 2 for extra crepes.

In a larger pan, heat a tablespoon of oil and then add the cooked ox tail pieces. Cook until heated through and then add the mushrooms. Cook for five minutes. Then add the soy sauce and the mirin. Let the mushrooms absorb the sauce and add the daikon. Cook for a minute and then add the rice. Cook for 3-5 minutes and add the sesame seed oil. Pour the rice onto a platter and add the egg crepe on top and the scallions. Slice the egg finely before serving. Enjoy!