Oxtail stewed with white grapes

Oxtail stewed with white grapes, or Le queue de bœuf des vignerons, Is a French way of cooking ox tail.  It is a lovely dish and not too expensive.  It has a rich, thick sauce made by blending the vegetables.  The dish can be reheated 2 or three times.

Preparation Time: 15 Mins

Cooking Time: 5½ Hrs

Total Time: 7½ Hrs

Ingredients

For 4 servings…

1                    Oxtail  - cut into 5 cm lengths  

60 gms            Salt pork  - cut into cubes       

1                    Onion  - chopped     

2                    Carrots  - diced       

1 clove            Garlic  - crushed      

1                    Bouquet garni         

                     Pepper  - freshly ground, black 

                     Salt          

¼ tsp             Allspice     

450 gms          Grapes  - white, crushed slightly

For a bouquet garnet

1                    Bay leaf     

1 sprig            Thyme      

1 sprig            Parsley     

Method

Soak the oxtail in cold water for 2 hours.

Put the salt pork in a fire-proof casserole with the vegetables on top.  Start off on a low flame and cook for 10 minutes until the fat from the salt pork is running.  Then add the oxtail and put the bouquet garnet in the centre.  Season with pepper, salt and allspice.  Cover the pot and cook gently for 20 minutes.  Then add the grapes.  Cover the pot with 2 sheets of grease-proof paper and the lid.  Transfer to a very slow oven (140°C) and cook for 5 hours or until the meat is so soft and tender it almost falls from the bones.

Once cooked, transfer the pieces of oxtail and a few of the little bits of pork to another to a serving dish and keep them hot.

In the meantime, sieve all the rest of the ingredients through the finest mesh of a mouli.  Pour the esulting sauce over the oxtail.

Serve with mashed potato.

Variations

If it is expected that the stew is going to be too fatty, then, when it has being cooking for ½ hour, take it out of the oven, remove and reserve the meat and let the sauce cook.  Skim off the solidified fat, return the meat and reheat on top of a stove for another 4½ hours.  Finish as normal.

Wine recommendations

A full-bodied red wine.

Conventional

     Côtes du Rhône

Interesting

     Côtes du Luberon

     Crozes Hermitage

     Saint Joseph

     Vacqueyras