Have you ever met someone and felt after a very short bit like you’ve been friends forever?  That happens to me very occasionally and just recently I met a woman who is just like that.  She does my lashes and every time I see her we spend the time talking and laughing hysterically.  She’s a real sweetheart and she introduced me to making rice noodles from scratch recently and I have to say it’s so easy it’s dangerous.  Granted I had to go to the Asian Market to hunt down the rice and tapioca flours but it was so worth it.  These babies are so simple to make you can easily have homemade ones for dinner within about 15 minutes.

This friend also mentioned oxtail soup and though I was a bit hesitant, when I saw them at the grocery store I just had to buy them and give them a shot.  Oxtails make the soup rich and so flavourful, it’s not a wonder that many people use them.  Just as a raw chicken or turkey carcass makes a great base for soups so do the oxtails.

With a little preplanning this soup is very simple.  Essentially you boil the oxtails in water with a whole onion (for easy removal later) and a few slices of ginger and a sprinkle of salt to taste.  Then remove and reserve the meat and put the broth in the fridge overnight so that you can scoop off the fat layer from the top.

Peel off the fat the next day and heat up and strain the soup so that you get a nice clear broth.

In the meantime for the noodles… mix equal parts tapioca flour and rice flour in your mixer, I used a cup of each, add about a cup of hot water and let it go.  Mix it until it becomes a nice supple dough and then roll the dough flat on a surface with more of the flour mixture so that it doesn’t stick and slice into strips.  I used my pizza slicer on this because it worked well with my egg noodles and it was so easy.  Lay the noodles out on a pan until you’re ready to use them.  You can apparently also store these for a bit in an airtight container, mine didn’t last long enough so I can’t speak to that…  😉

Pick the meat off the bones and put back into the broth, add a splash of fish sauce and hot pepper paste and salt and pepper lightly.

Place some cilantro and sliced green onions in a bowl and place the amount of noodles you would like then pour the hot broth with meat into the bowl.  Mix the noodles a bit, they don’t really stick but I like to warm them up…. garnish with a slice of lime and serve.

I definitely took some liberties with this soup, and it doesn’t authentically represent any real nationality but Lori did give it her thumbs up when I brought her some. I hope you enjoy it as well.