Oxtail Soup with Wontons

Soups and Congees

Oxtail Soup with Wontons
Ingredients:
5 Tablespoons thin soy sauce
1 teaspoon minced chili pepper, with no seeds
1 Tablespoon minced cilantro
4 to 5 pounds of oxtails, cut into segments
10 quarts of stock or water
5 scallions
1 onion, chopped
1 head of garlic, cut in half, cross-wise
1 three-inch piece fresh ginger
smashed peel of one tangerine
3 star anise
2 teaspoons coarse salt
20 peanuts, peeled and chopped, shelled, their paper exteriors discarded
1/4 pound minced pork
2 shiitake mushrooms, minced
1 egg, beaten until light in color
3 scallions, green parts only
20 wonton skins

Preparation:
1. Mix soy sauce, ginger, and chili pepper and set aside.
2. In a large stock pot, add two to three gallons water or chicken stock, the scallions tied in knots, the onion, garlic, ginger, tangerine peel, star anise, salt, and the peanuts, cover the pot, and simmer for three hours, then remove the oxtails and remove the meat from their bones.
3. Remove the paper skins from the peanuts and set them aside. Discard the star anise and the garlic head pieces, and skim or strain the liquid, rinse out the pot, and return the liquid and the ox-tail mea and onion to the pot and the strained liquid, as well.
4. Mix pork, minced mushrooms, peanuts, and the scallion pieces and put one tablespoon of this mixture into each wonton skins, wet their edges, pleat them shut, and set them aside for fifteen or twenty minutes.
5. Reheat the stock and oxtail mixture, keep it at a simmer add one or more dumplings, and simmer them for eight minutes. Then put two or more in everyone’s bowl or dish, add the oxtail meat, the liquid, peanuts, and serve.

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