Pigeon Cottage Kitchen

My mother used to make the best oxtail stew and that recipe is already published on the Pigeon Cottage Kitchen website. She would take the meat off the bones and serve the stew with chunks of vegetables and huge fluffy dumplings. In this Spanish version, the oxtail pieces are served whole in an unctuous sauce of stock vegetables, brandy and red wine. The sauce is passed through a sieve before serving to make it into a smooth gravy. Both are totally delicious!

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 2kg oxtail pieces. Sometimes you can just buy the thick end pieces, sometimes it’s sold as a whole tail which is narrower at the bottom end. Pick your oxtail to suit the recipe – on or off the bone.
• 50g plain flour, seasoned
• 4 tbsps olive oil
• 4 cloves of garlic, sliced
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 medium carrots, sliced
• 1 leek, sliced
• 4 tbsp brandy
• 500ml red wine, preferably Spanish
• 500 ml beef stock
• 2 bay leaves, a sprig of parsley and 4 thyme stalks
• Salt and freshly ground pepper

To make…

• Preheat the oven to 150C.
• Pat the oxtail dry with a pad of kitchen roll. Coat with 25g of the seasoned flour.
• Heat half the oil in a large casserole dish. Brown the oxtail pieces in batches and set the aside.
• Add the remaining oil and fry the onion, garlic, leek and carrot until lightly browned.
• Pour over the brandy. Set it alight – stand back when you do it. Once the flames have died down, stir in the seasoned flour. Cook it out for a couple of minutes. Stir in the wine, stock and add the herbs. Season with a pinch of salt and teaspoon of black pepper.
• Cover and cook gently in the oven for 3 hours. The oxtail should be tender but not falling apart. Take it out of the oven, leave to cool and chill overnight.
• The next day, gently scrape off the hardened fat layer. Gently reheat the casserole and remove the oxtail pieces. Pass the sauce through a fine sieve into a clean pan, pressing as much of the veg through the sieve with the back of a spoon.
• Return the sauce to the heat and reduce it until it is well flavoured. Add the oxtail pieces back in and simmer for 10 minutes until heated through.
• Serve with buttery mash or new potatoes and your favourite steamed greens.

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