Slow Cooked Ox-Tail Stew

I'm always on the look out for reduced or cheap items to make recipes for my blog. I have to say that, although these items were reduced, I certainly would not describe them as cheap. I have always wanted to use ox-tails to cook with, but having seen the price of them I've never bothered, I found some reduced in Sainsbury's and decided to give them a go. The finished dish was delicious served up with fresh green broccoli and new potatoes. The stew was everything I knew it would be, rich, thick and very tasty. All this aside would I buy it again? Probably not as the amount of cooking this cut needed meant not only was the meat expensive but the cooking of it was costly too. Having said that, if you fancy a treat and can afford it I would recommend giving it a whirl.

 Ox-tail 1kg

6 carrots chopped

3 red onions chopped

Small bottle red wine

Dried thyme tsp

Splash of Worcester sauce 

2 Heaped tbsp flour

Salt and Pepper

Small carton of passata

300ml beef stock

Tbsp oil

Add salt and pepper to the flour and coat the ox-tails in it.

In a very hot pan with some oil brown each side of the ox-tails.

After they are all browned place them in a large casserole dish and keep to one side.

 In the same frying pan on a medium heat with the fat from the ox-tails add the chopped carrots and onions and thyme and fry until soft, about 15-25 minutes.

Add the full bottle of red wine and a splash of Worcester sauce to the pan and stir.

Transfer to the casserole dish with the ox-tails add the beef stock passata and give it all another stir before putting into the oven at 180 for 2 and a half hours.

After 2 and a half hours give it all another stir turn the ox-tails over and return for a further 1-2 hours until the meat falls away from the bone.

It's quite normal to see an oily surface you can either skim it off now or leave it in the fridge over night to cool and scrape off the next day.

Shred the meat off the bones and make sure that all the bones are removed (No matter how much they have annoyed you this summer you really don't want to choke your family!)

When you have removed all the bones and added the shredded meat back to the dish, you can either keep it up to four days in the fridge until cooking again, or serve up with vegetables and potatoes immediately.