SLOW BRAISED OXTAIL SOUP

Simple old fashioned slow cooking that delivers a glorious deep rich soup and a great winter warming supper, add some horseradish dumplings and turn this into a hearty evening meal fit for a farmer!  When cooking this the house smells so welcoming and invokes wonderful childhood memories of my nan and her braising tin which I now cherish, this is my Nan's recipe with a little of Kristi in it.

Prep time 15 minutes / Un-attended cooking time 2-3hrs

This is a dish that develops deeper flavours if left for 24-48hrs before being eaten.

Ingredients

(Serves 4)

1.5kg oxtail tail

2 tbsp coconut oil

1 lrg onion finely chopped

1 stick celery finely chopped

1 carrot finely chopped

1 bay leaf torn

3 sprigs thyme chopped

Fresh ground black pepper

Himalayan pink salt or sea salt

500ml good quality red wine

1.5ltrs beef bone stock

2 tsp tom puree

2-3 tsp cornflour

First heat the oil in your casserole dish and brown the oxtail all over, remove from the pan and reserve to one side, add the onions to the pan and soften gently for five minutes, then add the carrot and celery and cook for another five minutes, add back the oxtail and all the other ingredients except for the cornflour.  Cover and slowly braise for 2-3 hrs or until the meat is falling off the bone, you can braise this in the oven 170 degrees or on a low heat on the stove.  If you want a thicker stoup (cross between stew and soup), consistency leave to simmer until desired thickness.

At this point I like to leave the casserole dish to cool on the side, then I remove all of the meat from the bones, adding the meat back to the stock and placing the dish in the fridge to set, this is so that all the fat will solidify on the top of the broth, making it easy to remove, giving you a healthier soup, totally optional.  

However I have often poured the hot stock into a fat separator jug, keeping the meat separate, added the stock back to the meat, minus the fat and eaten this soup as soon as it was made, but if honest I do prefer the deeper richer flavour of the rested matured soup.

To prepare the chilled soup for serving, first remove the cold layer of set fat from the top of the stock, bring up to a gentle simmer and heat thoroughly, taste and adjust the seasoning if needed with salt and pepper and enjoy.