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My friend Venice, we used to work together.  And one day she took this large tureen of oxtail soup to the office.  It was Hawaiian-style oxtail soup.  So delicious.  And when I asked her for the recipe she gave me a small bag of gow pee — almost-black dried tangerine peel.  Oxtail soup just doesn’t taste right without it.

Ingredients:

Soup

• 3 lbs. oxtails
• about 3″ ginger, sliced thinly
• 6 oz. raw peanuts
• 3-4 Chinese dates
• 3 anise flowers
• 1 piece gow pee
• Chinese mustard or bok choy
• Szechuan peppercorns (a tablespoon or so, in a small cloth bag)
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground pepper
• water
• 1/3 to 1/2c sherry

Dip

• chopped cilantro
• chopped green onion
• grated ginger
• soy sauce

Instructions:

1. Place oxtail in a deep pot, cover with about 2″ of water.  Boil for 20-25min.  Rinse with cool water.
2. Return oxtail to a clean pot, add the rest of the soup ingredients except for the mustard and sherry. Boil and then simmer for about 2 hours.
3. Chop the mustard into 2″ wide pieces.  Add to soup shortly before serving.
4. Add sherry to taste.  Boil for about 5 minutes.  Serve.
5. Serve the soy sauce with the cilantro, green onion, and ginger on the side.