Oxtail, Slow-cooked in Pinotage

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg oxtail, cut into joints
• 5 Tbsp (75 ml) seasoned flour
• 60 g butter
• 2 Tbsp (30 ml) sunflower oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 carrots, thickly sliced
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 2 C (500 ml) pinotage
• 2 C (500 ml) beef stock
• 2 Tbsp (30 ml) chopped parsley
• 3 sprigs of fresh or 2 tsp (10 ml) dried rosemary
• 1 Tbsp (15 ml) tomato purée
• 2 tsp (10 ml) lemon juice
• 2 tsp (10 ml) sugar
• sea salt and freshly milled black pepper
• 10 pickling onions, peeled
• 10 baby potatoes, peeled
• 125 g baby carrots, peeled

Instructions

1. 1

   Preheat the oven to 160 °C.

2. 2

   Trim excess fat off meat, and then toss the meat in seasoned flour.

3. 3

   Heat the butter and oil in a heavy-bottomed pan and brown the meat over high heat, doing only a few pieces at a time. Remove from the pan once browned and continue with the next batch. Place all the browned pieces in a large casserole dish.

4. 4

   Sauté the chopped onion, carrots and celery until soft and glossy. Stir leftover seasoned flour into pan and allow to brown well. Add wine, beef stock, herbs, purée, lemon juice, sugar and pepper. Bring to the boil while stirring. Pour the sauce over the meat in the casserole dish, cover and casserole in the oven for 2 hours.

5. 5

   After 2 hours, add the pickling onions, baby potatoes and carrots, cover again and cook for a further 2 hours, or until the meat falls off the bone. The longer you casserole it, the more tender the meat will be!