We’re oxtailing it today

Today’s menu is a spin on a traditional British oxtail soup. My spin is I’m turning into a stew instead.

Oxtail is one of those things that pops up in my grocery store every now and then. It’s sort of a ‘your luck on the day’ situation and when it’s there, I buy a pile of it!

The idea of oxtail soup appealed so it was off to Google to find a recipe and I came across one I fancied. The only problem is halfway through the recipe it calls for discarding the veg. That doesn’t appeal. I quite enjoy smooth soups but much prefer chunky bits so with a bit of rejigging, I’m hoping this will be a stew instead.

First off put a knob of butter into a biggish saucepan and brown off roughly 1 kg (2 lbs.) oxtail in the melted butter.

Remove from the pot and put aside. To the same saucepan, add:

2 large carrots, chopped

1 large onion, halved with 4 cloves pressed into it.

1 small turnip, roughly chopped

1 large leek, chopped

1 bay leaf (I used 2 small ones)

Salt & pepper to taste and for good measure, I tossed in a few whole peppercorns.

Sweat off the veg in the saucepan then put into a slow cooker. Top the veg with the browned oxtail pieces, add a cup of beef stock and a cup of red wine. I used a Pinot Noir but I’ll leave the choice up to you.

Toss in a few sprigs of fresh thyme for some extra flavour.

If you’re doing this on the stove top, you might need to add a bit more stock. Slow cookers tend to make more liquid as the food cooks so take care not to overdo it on the initial liquid amount.

Cook on low for 7-8 hours until the oxtail is fall-off-the-bone tender.

For the last 30 mins, remove a cup or so of the liquid from the slow cooker and mix in a tablespoon of gravy granules. Return this to the slow cooker and switch to high. This will thicken up the liquid to make gravy.

South Africans love rice so serving a stew on rice is not unusual. It turns out it’s unusual for everyone else so I sometimes opt to serve it on mashed potato because let’s be honest, thick stewy gravy on mashed potato is heaven on a plate. Tonight rice won the toss and it was GOOD!

Or you could just serve it with green veg, whatever floats your boat.

The plan tomorrow is a traditional Shepherd’s Pie with a salad. I have a friend coming over for lunch so a bit of home cooked comfort food should take the edge off the fact the weather is headed back into the freezer after 2 days of bliss.