How to Cook Oxtail with Prunes & Pancetta

Ingredients

Oxtail is delicious when slow cooked in the pot, complete with rich flavours and tender beef falling off the bone. The perfect winter-warmer recipe.

Preheat your oven to 135°C for fan assisted or 145°C for ovens without a fan.
Next choose a suitable sized ovenproof casserole with a tight-fitting lid
Season the meat just prior to colouring with good quality sea salt
Make a mirepoix by roughly chopping equal amounts of onion, carrot and celery (or our preferred choice of celeriac, the root of the celery) plus the spices and the garlic cloves
Take a large, heavy-based frying pan, and add a few drops pomace or vegetable oil & fry the oxtails and pancetta on all sides then transfer to the casserole dish adding the prunes at this stage
Next fry the mirepoix until lightly coloured
Add red wine, reduce by two thirds then add tomato puree and 500 ml of essential cuisine beef stock and reduce a little, thicken with a tablespoon corn flour mixed with a little cold water and stirred into the boiling broth
Pour the sauce over the oxtail and vegetables then cover with a tight-fitting lid
Place in the centre of the oven and cook for approximately 3 and a half to 4 hours, the meat should be tender when pierced with a meat fork and come clean away from the bone
Remove from oven
Pass off the juices through a fine sieve into a clean saucepan and reduce to a glossy finish then pour back over the meat, bacon, vegetables and prunes ready to serve