If you haven’t watched this recipe on Instagram Reels, you’re truly missing out on all the wonderful sounds during the cooking process + seeing how rich & delicious this Oxtail Stew is! This photo doesn’t do it as much justice as a dynamic video:)

If you’re here for our family’s hearty recipe, here you go!

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 4 hours

Serves: 4 - 5 pax

Don’t let the cook time scare you away… Most of the cooking will be done on the stove top or in the oven!

Ingredients

1 kg oxtail (or chuck)
Plain flour - enough to coat oxtail pieces
3 sticks of celery, diced
4 - 5 medium carrots, diced
1 large white onion, diced
1 - 1.5 tbsp tomato paste
Red and/or white wine
800ml Beef or chicken stock
Rosemary
Thyme
Bayleaf
Oil (we used evoo)
Salt & sugar (to taste)

Note

No hard and fast rule for liquids (i.e. wine & stock proportions) as it’s all going to reduce into a stew anyway. Add as much as you like and reduce until desired consistency!

Method

Dry oxtail with paper towels and coat with plain flour until all surfaces are sufficiently covered. This helps with browning the oxtail pieces for extra flavour, as well as to thicken the stew after liquid is added
Start to sear all sides of the oxtail in a large pot that is preheated, you can add some oil but oxtail is generally quite fatty so it’s okay to skip it too.
Dice all the vegetables
Once oxtail is seared and golden brown, set it aside and add oil then diced vegetables to sauté in the pot.
Once onions are soft and translucent, add tomato paste and sauté for another few minutes.
Then add oxtail back, and herbs - bayleaf, thyme and rosemary. Skip the ones you don’t have or add what you enjoy.
Add wine - we used a mixture of red and white! Give the pot some time to cook off the alcohol and infuse with flavours.
After about 15 - 20 minutes, add stock. We made sure all the ingredients were covered and then gave everything a good stir
Let it reduce uncovered for about 45 - 60 minutes, checking on it at the halfway mark. Add more stock or water if all the liquid is gone, but we did not have to add more along the way.
After 45 - 60 minutes, you can put the lid on and reduce it to a stew-like consistency for the next 3 hours or so. We cooked ours in the oven at 160ºC.
After 3 hours of stewing, add salt & sugar to taste and serve!