Oxtail stew

There's no denying that it's a brown dinner.  But what a brown dinner - reputedly the only 'brown beef' Nigel Slater will eat, it really is the epitome of a winter dinner.  Coming back from a frosty tramp through the fields, faces red and ears tingling with cold, what could be better than a hearty dish of oxtail stew?

I've never knowingly eaten the tail of anything except a cow.  I've heard my father tell of lambs' tails and I have recipes for pigs' tails, but I've never had the chance for either.  An oxtail, however is a different matter altogether.  Large nuggets of sweet and dense meat covered with a thin layer of fat, all clinging to a thick heavy bone - oxtail is at its best when gently braised for a couple of hours with root vegetables and a little wine. 

Served on or off the bone, the choice is yours - but if you're an on-the-bone person like me, you'll need napkins as the real pleasure lies in all that sucking and slurping...  Spud is a definitely off-the-bone kinda gal - more refined perhaps, but missing a trick in my book!  Either way, all you need with this are a few boiled potatoes on the side to mash into all that delicious gravy.

This recipe takes the option of mashing all the root vegetables down into the sauce then adding a few crisp carrots and leeks a little before serving.  This way, you get all the flavour without that over-soft texture of over-braised vegetables.  Instead of the more usual red wine, I've used port (in a smaller amount) and a dash of sherry vinegar - this gives a slightly sweeter, more balanced taste.

Oxtail Stew
(Serves six)

3 lb oxtail trimmed and jointed
A tablespoon or two of beef dripping, goose or duck fat or oil
1 large onion in rough dice
3 medium carrots in rough dice
2 medium leeks, roughly chopped
3 ribs of celery, roughly chopped
1 tin tomatoes
1 pint Port
1tbsp sherry vinegar
1 1/2 pints beef stock (from a cube is fine, fresh is better)

For the garnish:
1 large leek, finely diced
2 medium carrots, finely diced
2 sticks celery, finely diced
4oz swede, finely diced
Bay leaf
Sprig of thyme
A few pieces of orange peel (no pith please!)

Heat the oven to 180°C.
Begin by browning the oxtail all over in hot fat.  Remove, reduce the heat and add the vegetables.  Allow to take on a little colour and sweat a little.  Add the port, sherry vinegar, stock and tomatoes.  Add the meat and bring to a gentle simmer.  Cover and place in the oven for 2-3 hours until the meat is tender to the point of a table knife.
Remove the meat and force the vegetables and sauce through a fine sieve.  This will take a while, I'm afraid, working through with the back of ladle.  It's best now to leave overnight if you can, in the fridge.  You can then remove any fat from the top before re-heating.

You can now either leave the meat on the bones or take it off and reheat the whole thing with the garnish vegetables and flavourings for 20-30 minutes until the vegetables are cooked through (but still retain some bite) and the meat properly hot all the way through.  Serve, garnished with a little chopped parsley if you like, and boiled potatoes.  And a very good bottle of red wine!

tags: beef  

links: digg this    del.icio.us    technorati    reddit