You should have seen my face! I ‘was’ a vegetarian for nearly 20 years. I now enjoy a good steak and don’t mind handling meat. However, a South African friend shared a Slow Cooker Oxtail recipe and she even pointed me in the direction of a local South African butcher.
My husband loves Oxtail soup but we normally buy it in a tin. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but the look on my face when the Butcher walked out of the fridge carrying a 3 foot long tail must have said it all.
If I’m honest, I was a bit squeamish handling it but got over it in the end and it was worth it as the soup was absolutely gorgeous. So gorgeous that we had it two nights in a row.
- 1 tin [url href=”http://www.napolina.com/text_only/our_range.html” target=”_blank” title=”Butter Beans”]butterbeans[/url]
- 1.5kg (3 pounds) oxtail, segmented with fat trimmed (ask local butcher to do this for you)
- flour, seasoned with salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 30ml (2 tablespoons) olive oil
- 3 onions peeled and chopped
- 4 – 6 carrots – peeled
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- 250ml (1 cup) red wine
- 500ml (2 cups) beef stock
- 60ml (4 tablespoons) tomato purée
- 45ml (3 tbsp) brown sugar (optional)
- 1 bay leaf (optional)
- 2.5ml (1/2 tsp) dried thyme (optional)
- 2.5ml (1/2 tsp) teaspoon dried sweet basil (optional)
- 2.5ml (1/2 tsp) teaspoon dried parsley (optional)
- Heat the oil in a frying pan. Dust the oxtail in seasoned flour, brown on all sides and transfer to the slow cooker.
- Add the onions, garlic, wine, tomato puree and stock.
- Add the sugar to the tomato mixture to neutralise the acidity.
- Rinse the beans thoroughly under running water and add to the meat.
- Add the herbs if desired.
- Cover and cook on low for a minimum of 6 hours until meat falls off bone. (Note: I found that the meat didn’t fall off the bone so I fished it out of the slow cooker, scraped it and returned the meat to the dish.)
- Remove excess fat
- Serve with rice, mash potatoes, polenta, fresh bead.
- It also tastes delicious if left overnight and reheated the following day
As always I’m on the hunt for some new recipes to try out. Do you have any you would like to share?
And if you need extra inspiration, don’t forget to check out our Pinterest Board, with over a hundred recipes.
Google+ fans, we also have a Community ‘All Things Slow Cooking’ feel free to join in.
And if you subscribe to my blog, using the form in the sidebar you can get a free copy of my first ever eBook ‘There’s More to Slow Cooking than Stews – 10 Recipes to get you going’.