Ox tail season is upon us and if you know me, if you follow me on any socials you will know how much I love ox tail, I will sell a kidney for one, give you my liver, hell sell the first born child i di not have for ox-tail because I LOVE OX TAIL. I’ve a friend who makes the best ox tail stew, the absolute best, I have been trying to bribe her to make this for me I mean I would pay her for her time and all but you know the next best thing is for her to get the recipe down for us so here goes.
HOW TO:
- Start by infusing the garlic in the olive oil to kick in the flavour profile; cut up the garlic in thin slices, and put this in the extra virgin olive oil to rest. I would say you need about ten minutes here. The oil should be enough to sauté the vegetables.
- Mix the spices together in a bowl (allspice, turmeric, ginger, white pepper, smoked paprika, thyme and Himalayan salt)
- Season the ox tail with the spice mix, ideally marinade over night but this is not necessary, we pick our battles.
- Hot. The base of any flavour is heat so you want to place a pan on medium heat for a little beat before pouring your now infused garlic extra virgin olive oil in the pan.
- Fry the finely chopped carrots, celery and shallots or purple onions in the infused garlic oil NOTE: you want to fry the carrots first for about two minutes to soften it a bit because it is the coarser of the veggies. Sauté until soft and fragrant then set aside in a bowl.
- In the same oil fry the seasoned ox tail (optional step here, add some palm sugar) Fry on either side until it is perfectly browned
- Add 1 vegetable stock cube to 500 ml of water, 1 tbs. corn or plain flour and 1 tbs of Worcestershire sauce, combine thoroughly and add to the ox tail.
- Add in the sautéed veggie to the oxtail and thoroughly combine to evenly distribute. Cover and leave to cook on medium heat for 30 minutes.
- Remove from the stove and place in the oven 180 degrees or if you have an Aga, the roasting over. Leave for 2 hours or until the meat literally falls off the bone in the thick stew
COOK’S NOTE:
- Use a teaspoon or half a teaspoon for the dry spices
- the ground allspice is the dominant flavour so use about one and half teaspoons of this.
- don’t be too prescriptive with spice quantities, wing it and let the flavour be your guide.
- Dutch oven is best or a cast iron pan.
- frozen chopped veggies are acceptable its a cozzie livs and ox tail is basically the mortgage babes.
- cooked strew will have a significant layer of oil from the oxtails this can be scooped off or if cooled remove the hardened fat.
- Follow her @so_re_mi