Jump Down The Alley Way for Lemon Crunch Cake and Oxtail Soup

There is a little restaurant, in a bowling alley in Aiea, on Oahu, called The Alley.  This place is what you might call a hole in the wall, or a hidden gem.  Most local people do know about the place, but it took Marg the Intrepid, in Australia to clue me in.  She wanted to come to Hawaii to see the Arizona Memorial and partly for the Alley's Lemon Crunch Cake.  Now we don't hop over to Oahu all that often, and when we do go, it is not to Aiea.  However, Bob had his Kaiser eye surgery not too far away.  And we were taking advantage of Uber, so no worries about finding it. Our driver was an older Filipino gentleman who asked us how we knew about The Alley:)

I wanted their famous Oxtail Soup, but just mentioned the cake to Bob.  That was enough (especially after his fasting pre-op).  We took our cake back to the hotel for later, and it was quite good, though Marg's version actually sounded better (isn't home made always?). However, the Oxtail soup was TO DIE FOR.  Thus today's post, wherein I attempt to duplicate their soup.  Luckily, Chef Glen was interviewed on a local program, and shared his secrets (handed down from his mother).  Nothing written out, but he demonstrated pretty clearly, and there were a few versions online that purported to be authentic.  I am transcribing as best I can what he, and I did here. I felt good about the beef, which was from a local rancher, hard hit by the recent volcanic eruption.

OXTAIL SOUP – THE ALLEY RESTAURANT

INGREDIENTS

• 2 lbs oxtails
• 1 strip dried lemon peel (zest, not the pith)
• 2 star anise
• 2 tablespoons chopped dates
• ¼ lb. dry shitake mushrooms (fresh are ok)
• 1-inch piece of fresh ginger, thinly sliced (?) he didn’t add it in the video
• Salt, at least a tablespoon, more to taste
• 1/2 cup of shelled, skinned, raw peanuts (can sub roasted unsalted peanuts)
• 1/8 teaspoon chili pepper flakes (or more to taste)
• A handful of fresh mustard greens, baby bok choy or watercress, coarsely chopped (about 2 cups, loosely packed) I used both bok choy and watercress.

 Garnishes

• Fresh cilantro, chopped
• Green onions, white and green parts, sliced on diagonal
• Freshly grated ginger

METHOD

1  In a large pot, add the oxtails and cover with cold water. Bring to slow boil. Parboil for 30 minutes. Drain the pot. Rinse the oxtails in water, and trim off any excess fat.

2  Return the oxtails to the pot. Cover with water by an inch. Add the shitake mushrooms, lemon peel, star anise, ginger, and salt. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer. Cover and let simmer for one hour.

3  Add the peanuts and simmer for 2-3 more hours, until the oxtail meat is tender and falling off the bone.

4  At this point, you can either skim the fat off the soup and proceed to the next step, or let the soup cool, and chill it overnight in the refrigerator. The next day the fat will have solidified and will be easy to pull up from the top of the soup. The flavors will also have had more of a chance to blend and be absorbed by the oxtails if you let the soup sit overnight.

5  Bring soup to a simmer. Add the chili pepper flakes and greens of choice. Cook for 5 more minutes, or until the greens are tender.

6  Serve with garnishes of chopped fresh cilantro, green onions, and freshly grated ginger.

If you want, you can strip the meat off the bones before serving. If served bone-in, you will want to provide a bowl for the bones. Serve with ponzu sauce and rice.  I however, served it with some of my fresh baked, sourdough bread.

Ponzu Sauce  (Supposed to be his mother's secret recipe from years and years and years ago.)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup fresh orange juice
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 tablespoon mirin (sweet rice wine)
• 1 teas. Sesame oil
• 1 teas. Sugar
• 1 teas. grated ginger
• 1 clove crushed garlic
• 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Mix ingredients together and chill. An excellent adjunct.

 However the soup didn't have that robust flavor I was expecting, as at The Alley, so I added some "Better than Bouillon" au jus concentrate and a bit of bone broth to amp it up (2 tablespoons each). That did it nicely.

I'll send this over to Beth Fish Reads for her Weekend Cooking event, and to Deb at Kahakai Kitchen for her Souper Sundays link-up. Check out both for lots of good food and cooking ideas.