What has happened to Autumn? It’s balmy out there. Warm even. The nights are gettting cold but the daytime is positively pleasant. Okay we got the back-end of Hurriance Whatnot but generally speaking the weather is not going to plan. And that’s great except for two things.
First it means we are heading for a vicious winter (the law of Happiness Stan states that pleasant weather is inevitably followed by a spell of unpleasant weather times ten). Second it means that I cannot plunge into a heady mix of ‘winter warmers’, ‘comfort food’ and even ‘unctuous’ creations without them seeming as out of place as fois gras at a vegan convention.
But that won’t stop me. As if. So I decided to get a head start on winter and revert to an old favourite. Oxtail. This time braised in stout (or Guinness by any other name).
The green stuff is a nod to the five-a-day brigade.
Now lets be clear. This creation still fits (most of) the dietary criteria of those seeking to eat a calorie-controlled diet. Insomuch that it doesn’t include much in the way of carbs (if you discount the beer).
Either way, for Oxtail Braised in Guinness, you will need…
…basically some oxtail and some Guinness. But as you can see I included something else. A beef cheek. This is because my favourite supermarket (which is superfluous to name) didn’t have enough oxtail.
Anyway the first thing you need to do is put the oxtail (ideally you’d have a whole one cut into four bits) in a plastic container and pour a pint of Guinness all over it:
Then you cover it and leave in the fridge for 24 hours.
The next day you need to get out a Dutch oven. Choose wisely. Here’s my go-to Dutch oven:
Well used. A gift from the wife’s Grandma. But unfortunately this time it won’t do. I need to upsize:
This one I call Leviathan. The Monster. The Bad Boy of Bad Boys. Anyway back to the food. All you need is the oxtail marinated in the Guinness plus 1/2 pint of beef stock, two onions, some carrots, celery, a bulb of garlic and some thyme.
Now put some oil in that enormous pot, heat and then fry off the meat until well browned:
Cut the top off the bulb of garlic and chop the veg up. Add to the pot and fry until starting to soften:
Add back the meat and pop in the herbage. Pour in the Guinness marinade and the stock:
Bring to the boil, then cover and pop in the oven (more like heave into the oven) at 150 centigrade for about three hours (maybe three and a half)
Once the meat is done to your liking (falling off the bone is good) remove from the pot:
Drain the juices and discard the vegetables (damnation to all those vegetables).
Now, in the interests of health, remove as much fat from the liquid as you can. I Googled this. Its not so easy to get rid of all the fat when its still in a liquid state. I resorted to pouring the juicy stuff into glasses, reducing the surface area and thereby making it easier to spoon the fatty stuff off…
Return the sauce (for by now it is technically a sauce) to a pan and boil down.
But wait. There is still too much detrius. I need purer sauce. Time for the egg white trick. Adding egg white to an impure concotion removes impurities…
Let it simmer, the egg white cooks, and the bits and pieces absorb into it.
Yuk! Better out than in. Now return the purified sauce to the boil and simmer until it reduces down ( a bit of cornflour will help but don’t tell anyone).
Once the sauce is thickened to your liking, pour over the meat.
Now serve. I tried kale. Kale is okay, but I wouldn’t go outside looking for it, so to speak…
All in all this is Autumnal fare – rich and tasty. And to be honest I would eat this any time of year, cold, hot, wet, dry. Don’t care!
Well worth going the extra mile…
I am such a huge fan of Oxtail. Many thanks for sharing 😊
Can’t beat a bit of oxtail. Except for Ox cheek maybe…
Never had Ox cheek 😞
Haven’t had this in ages. High. Bloody. Time.
The oxtail looks great!! The kale not as much – we had kale the other night, and the granddaughters piled theirs on their mother’s plate.
Yes it reminds me of…well Im not sure, like eating seaweed maybe
Beautiful. Two thoughts spring to mind. Getting less common bits of the beasts is becoming more difficult. I will fight that to the end. Watch out for a couple of posts coming soon.
Secondly, I love the egg white trick. I must employ that. Your sauce looks divine.
Yes that egg white thing is handy if a little wasteful
Slow cooked meat. What can be better 🙂
Nothing. Actually nothing at all!
Even though we’re moving into Summer here, I still like the idea of slowly cooking large chunks of animal flesh so it can be used in salads and on sandwiches.
We’re in that “who knows what to wear” here and just came off a perfect warm fall week by getting hit with a major Nor’easter of flooding, thunder, and lightening over here. Based on the rain we’re getting I’m wondering if this is a preview of our winter snowfall.
Funny you should post this as I was just getting back to working out my braised short rib recipe which is a bit like this one (I skip the veggies though other than onions and garlic). I’m laughing about skimming the fat off the stock though…when I was first married my mother was watching as I made gravy & she couldn’t quite believe that I was skimming and saving the fat while dumping the good stuff. Didn’t matter anyway, because after all that, I dumped it all in a sieve to get bits of junk out but didn’t have a bowl underneath so everything ended up going down the drain. Her only comment was “I’m not believing that you just did that”. Oh well, no gravy with that meal.
I agree with you that this is a year round recipe, looks great and I agree with you on the kale.
I just came back with some ribs and read this. Short rib cookoff it is….
Yea! I hope you like it – just play with the ketchup and mustard though because one of my trials I used too much mustard and whoa… I don’t know if you can get that type of mustard over there but I really love the dijon with the seeds in it for cooking.
Yes Dijon is the stuff of choice for us. I’ve just stuck mine in red wine and Maderia and put it in the friege to marinade for 24 hours. Yumbo.
Oh, and I love those napkins in the background! 🙂
I know they’re are emergency napkins we only use them when we have to because they are class
I love this post!! And I have to admitt, you go to a lot more effort to strain the fat from the sauce then I do …! I have some oxtail cheeks in the freezer and am looking forward to treating them in a similar fashion – yum!
I wouldnt normally bother removing the fat but I’m trying to be good…