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Really Slow Cooked Oxtail Pie

Tom and Liz
85 minutes
1 pie (26cm x 20cm)
Intermediate
This one was two days in the making (everybody knows a good curry tastes a thousand times better the following day!) Couple this with the fact that a good pie is my single favourite food, I was sure I would be on to a winner with this one - and I was. Steak pies are a very common thing, but I wanted to spruce it up a little and I did this by using oxtail as the main ingredient. This is a cheap ingredient (one tail cost me about 6 quid) which, if cooked in the right way, is unbelievably full of flavour. It has definitely grown in popularity recently - I guess this is due to its cost during this terrible financial crisis we are in! Whatever the reason, this is a great ingredient and I think this way of cooking and serving it really does make for something pretty delicious. The oxtail is a really tough cut of meat because it is so gelatinous and also because the animal is constantly moving its tail and making a strong muscular tissue. As such, it needs long slow cooking to be able to make it nice to eat. I took this idea a little further and cooked it REALLY slowly. We don't have a slow cooker, but then I realised that the technique of slow-cooking must be older than the invention of the modern day slow cooker! So I did a bit of research and worked out a good temperature that can be used to cook this in a conventional oven. I decided on 110/120C for about 9/10 hours. I put it in the oven before I went to bed and by the morning it was perfect (plus a good nights sleep to the smells of slow cooking cow). Some people caution against leaving the oven on for so long but I really can't see what can go wrong at these temperatures. It is so low that the stew will not even be bubbling so it can't cook itself dry or anything like that. If you really don't want to try this, then I guess a higher heat of about 160C for 3-4 hours would be OK. To me, a good pie should be a thick and rich filling either topped off or fully encased in a buttery pastry, with a velvety gravy poured on afterwards. Too many times I see pies just as a stew with a pie lid on top. I think you should be able to cut a piece and it can stand by itself and not run all over the plate! See my method for instructions on how to achieve this. As mentioned, this took me two days to make. After the cooking of the stew, let it rest for atleast 10 hours before making it into a pie. So plan ahead for this one! As for the pastry, I opted for a basic rough-puff, mainly due to its high butter content. This is not a recipe for anybody who is counting the calories! It is rich and strong, but well worth all the effort. One final thing - I used beer in this recipe, not red wine. I'm English, not French. For me, this recipe made the perfect amount to make one pie in a dish sized 26cm x 20cm.
Really Slow Cooked Oxtail Pie

Total Steps

11

Ingredients

14

Tools Needed

9

Ingredients

  • 100 ml cold water
  • pinch salt
  • 250 g butter
  • 250 g plain flour
  • as needed butter or oil for frying(optional)
  • 3 leaves bay leaves
  • 1 large bottle ale
  • 500 ml beef stock
  • to taste salt and pepper
  • 10 berries juniper berries (crushed)
  • 2 white onions
  • 200 g button mushrooms
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 1 oxtail (chopped into pieces)

Instructions

1

Step 1

Brown the oxtail in a smoking hot ovenproof pan. Ideally, use the same pan for cooking the final stew.

2

Step 2

Remove the browned oxtail. Add the mushrooms to the pan and brown them very quickly.

3

Step 3

until very soft

Reduce the heat. Add the sliced onions and cook slowly until they are very soft.

4

Step 4

2 minutes

Add the chopped garlic and cook for another 2 minutes. Return the oxtail and mushrooms to the pan.

5

Step 5

Add the juniper berries, bay leaves, ale, beef stock, salt, and pepper to the pan. Bring the mixture to a boil.

6

Step 6

at least 8 hours

Ensure the oxtail is completely covered in liquid. Place a lid on the pan and put it in the oven preheated to 110-120°C. Cook for at least 8 hours.

7

Step 7

20 minutes

To make the pastry: Sift the plain flour and a pinch of salt into a bowl. Add the cubed butter and use your fingers to combine the flour and butter until a rough texture is achieved. Slowly add cold water until a rough dough forms. Wrap the dough in cling film and place it in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.

8

Step 8

30 minutes

Roll out the chilled pastry into a rectangle, taking care to roll only in one direction. Fold down the top third, then fold up the bottom third. Turn the dough 90 degrees and repeat the rolling and folding process. Cover the dough again and place it in the refrigerator for another 30 minutes. After chilling, take out the pastry and roll it into a rectangle approximately 0.5cm thick.

9

Step 9

In the meantime, prepare the pie filling. Sieve the cooked oxtail mixture to remove all the liquid, making sure to reserve the liquid as it will be used for the gravy.

10

Step 10

25 minutes

Tip the oxtail filling into the pie dish and place the rolled pastry over the top. Put the pie into a preheated oven at 180°C for about 25 minutes, or until the pastry is golden brown.

11

Step 11

To finish the gravy: Heat the reserved liquid in a pan. If the gravy is not thick enough, you can either add a cornflour paste or form a roux in a fresh pan and add the gravy to it.

Tools & Equipment

oven
ovenproof pan
lid
mixing bowl
cling film
refrigerator
rolling pin
sieve
pie dish (26cm x 20cm)

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