Winter Food

A SERIES of recipes successfully used in our kitchen for the cold weather, and for the cooler economic times.

Right: Pieces of oxtail, browned and dredged in seasoned flour, wait to go into the casserole.

Slow food is soul food, and love and time are its main ingredients, so this will be the hallmark of these recipes. Most of the first selection of dishes have been prepared using a size 28 enamelled cast-iron casserole made in France by Le Creuset, but any heavy saucepan of decent size will do. The real advantage of the Creuset is that everything can be done in one pan. The cast-iron is a splendid container of heat and is especially suited for slow cooking.

 

 

Oxtail for the winter

 

MANY years ago, when I would have been about 10 years old, a culinary event took place at the family home in Johannesburg. An uncle, a respected surgeon, was celebrating his 50^th birthday and for the occasion was giving a winter dinner party for friends and close colleagues.

 

He decided that the ideal food for the occasion would be a queue de boeuf farci, which is a stuffed oxtail.

 

Being a skilled surgeon he had no problem boning the two carefully chosen tails, using a scalpel or two and rolling the meat back as the vertebrae were removed one by one. How the thing was stuffed I haven’t a clue, but the whole business took a couple of hours.

 

Some time later, as the family were enjoying a relaxing drink on the stoep, Lumpi, the resident dachshund, was seen tearing across the lawn with the glorious oxtail, patiently stuffed, flying around his ears as he vanished into the trees to enjoy his spoils. He gave knew meaning to the term ‘sausage dog’.

 

This winter we will also be enjoying oxtail, but with the vertebrae intact.

 

As with all slow cooking this takes time, care and patience, and is worth every moment of it all. You can use frozen oxtail quite successfully, but the vertebrae must be separated. If the tail has been put through a band saw, forget it.

 

Ingredients

 

2 oxtails (there’s a lot of work here, so make enough for eight people; you can freeze what is left);

3 medium onions, sliced into half-rings;

ten medium carrots, scrubbed;

ten cloves of garlic, roughly chopped;

a big thumb of ginger, finely chopped;

spices (see method);

seasoned flour for dredging the oxtail pieces (in other words, rolling them in it);

2 teaspoons of salt;

good olive oil ( Greek is good for this dish);

1 bottle of full red wine;

tablespoon of soft brown sugar;

15 stoned prunes;

a handful of coarsely chopped dried peaches.

 

Method

Brown the meat in the casserole carefully on a medium heat using a little olive oil; too much heat will burn the meat and too little will cause it to loose water. With two tails you will have to brown the meat in batches to cover the bottom of the pan with enough space to turn them round and over.

 

Put the browned oxtail pieces to one side. When they are cool roll them in the seasoned flour.

 

Add a little more oil to the pan and start frying the onions. Move them around a lot to deglaze the pan. Cook until they are soft and opaque, with slight browning.

 

Spices  

The spices for an oxtail require a little care and attention. Into a small, dry frying pan put 1 heaped tablespoon of coriander seeds, a teaspoon of cumin seeds, a teaspoon of black peppercorns, eight allspice berries, and five cloves.

Dry roast the spices in the pan on a fairly high heat until they change colour. Allow them to cool a little and put them in a coffee grinder. It is best to prepare the spices before you start anything else.

 

Add the ground spices to the onions in the casserole then add the ginger and the garlic and allow them to fry for a minute or so more.

 

Now put the oxtail on top of the mixture and add the peaches, the carrots and the prunes. Pour in the bottle of wine and add the sugar and salt. Mix the ingredients with a wooden spoon and bring to the boil. Top up the liquid, if it is needed, with boiling water to just cover the meat.

 

With a Creuset pan the lid should fit tightly as a matter of course; if you are in doubt use a disc of greasproof  paper to form a seal.

 

Transfer to a preheated oven at 140 degrees (C) and leave it there for three hours. Allow the dish to cool for a couple of hours, taste it and if necessary adjust the salt. Leave the casserole in the fridge overnight.

 

The following morning the fat from the oxtail will be easy to remove. Once you have done this return it to the oven at the same temperature for three-and-a-half hours and allow to stand for half-an-hour before serving.

 

Oxtail is excellent with mashed potatoes. When mashing, be careful not to add too much milk or butter or whatever you prefer, so that the mash absorbs the delicious gravy. Garden peas go well with this lot, too.