Ingredients
- 2kg oxtail, cut into pieces.
- Flour to coat
- Salt and pepper
- 100ml sunflower oil
- A knob of butter
- 3 sticks of celery, roughly chopped
- 2 onions, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 head of fennel, roughly chopped
- 2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 head of garlic, cut in half
- 1 heaped tbsp redcurrant jelly
- 750ml chicken stock
- 2 sprigs of rosemary
- 3 star anise
- Pickled carrots:
- 2 carrots
- Juice of 1 orange
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp golden brown sugar
- 6 cardamom pods, crushed
- Little Gem salad:
- 2 Little Gem lettuce, separated, washed and dried
- 200g natural yoghurt
- 2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
- 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
- Fresh coriander, small bunch, leaves picked
1 Preheat your oven to 140 degrees.
2 Add salt and pepper to the flour then coat the oxtail with this, and pat off the excess.
3 Heat half the oil until it is gently smoking, then add the oxtail to the pan.
4 Sear the meat over a medium heat until golden brown, then remove from the pan.
5 Carefully throw away the hot oil and put the pan back on the heat with the remaining oil, butter, vegetables, garlic and rosemary.
6 Sweat the mixture over a medium heat until it is soft, this will take about 15 minutes.
7 Add the oxtail to the vegetables, then add the stock, star anise and redcurrant jelly.
8 Bring to a simmer, cover and put in the oven for four to five hours, until the meat is falling off the bone.
9 When it is ready, lift out the oxtail, strain the liquid through a sieve into a pot and push any juice from the vegetables through with the back of a ladle.
10 Reduce the cooking liquor by half, by simmering it, carefully skimming any fat from the surface all the while.
11 When the sauce reaches coating consistency, put the oxtail back into the sauce.
To make the pickled carrots:
1 Peel the carrots, then continue to peel ribbons, down to the base of the carrot.
2 Bring the orange juice, vinegar, sugar and cardamom to the boil and add the carrot strips. Remove the pot from the heat immediately and allow to cool. They are ready to use once cool.
To serve:
1. Heat the oxtail in its juice then divide on to shallow bowls.
2 Mix the yoghurt with the sesame oil then coat the lettuce leaves in the yoghurt, like a Caesar salad, and place on top of the oxtail, followed by the carrots, sesame seeds and coriander. Serve with plain basmati rice.
