Oxtail Stew Of Death!

Last night, I wanted to make a nice batch of oxtail stew. I wanted a spicy flair to it, a slight Mexican influence.

At the store I picked up a 27 oz. can of El Pato tomato sauce, labeled "Hot". I figured it wouldn't be that hot, so I picked up a 7 oz. can of chipotle peppers. These ones.

I went over to the produce section and picked up a nice box of little orange and red peppers in a plastic shell case. I thought those were bell peppers. Some onions, some carrots, and to home I went.

At home I took out a pack of oxtails, and some pearl barley I always intended to use for something. I got out my handy Fagor Splended 6-quart pressure cooker, and browned the oxtail and tossed in some onions, and poured in the El Pato, and added in maybe a half cup of water, just enough to get some liquid in the pot. I put in a half cup of the pearl barley, figuring it would cook up nicely like rice does.

After getting the pot rollin' for 8 minutes, I cooled it down using the cold water release method and opened the lid. The stew was smelling magnificent, if not a bit hot. The barley was looking like gravel, not too good.

Anyhow, I put in the other vegetables on top, sealed it up and let 'er rip for another 8 minutes. Around 5 minutes into it, I smell the dreaded "cigarette butts" smell of food burning in the pressure cooker. I have no idea how something can burn underwater, but it does, and it did. Ugh. I slid the cooker off the hot burner and over to a cool one, to give the stew a few more minutes to cook under it's own heat.

When the timer went off at 8 minutes, I again cooled the pot down with the cold water release method, and opened it up. The stew smelled pretty good, but it was also clear it was scorched on the bottom. I ladeled up a bowlful on top of some brown rice and let it cool down enough to eat.

It was the Oxtail Stew of Death. Those little peppers weren't bell peppers, they were very hot peppers, sort of like jalapenos, but they wern't exactly those. I did remove all the seeds, but those babies were hot hot. The El Pato and chipotle are fantastic stuff, and I plan on doing this again, but whoo, this stuff I cooked up would melt plastic. It's good but mega spicy. I served it up anyway to Rachel and Justin. Rachel had some, but yeah, it was too hot for her. It was definitely too hot for Justin, but he ended up dipping a tortilla in it and used it as a sort of salsa.

I'll be making this again, just not so deadly.