Recipe – Slow Braised Ox Tail and Cheek Paleo Pie

On a recent flight i caught a couple of episodes of Heston Blumenthal’s “How to cook like Heston” program, which i thought was a really nice program, because Heston has a real love for real produce, and knows the science of flavour without needless additions.

Yesterday I made a little variation on his oxtail and kidney pudding recipe.

This recipe is a goodun to make on a wintery afternoon, as it is very time intensive, and demands some attention in parts.  It would be good for some of you followers in the Atlantic Northeast at the moment, where you’re snowed in!  I made it on a summers day when we didn’t have much on, started at midday and didn’t eat til about 8pm!

I have used some dairy in this recipe as we are tolerant of it, and there are some tomatoes in here too, those with Autoimmune diseases will want to leave the tomatoes out, and for the dairy intolerant the Parsnip mash can be made without the dairy components.

For the Filling

• Tallow or Ghee
• 3 sticks celery, sliced
• One leek, sliced
• 4 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 6 button mushrooms, sliced
• 3 medium sized onions, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 star anise
• 1.5kg oxtail
• 2 ox cheeks, mucous membranes removed
• 250ml red wine
• 100ml cognac
• 1 tin peeled tomatoes
• 1 bay leaf
• Salt and Pepper
• 750ml chicken stock

For the Top

• 6 medium sized Parsnips
• 200ml heavy cream, or Raw Milk
• 100gm Butter
• 1 Small cup of Grated Parmesan

To Serve

• Continental Parsley
• Lemon Rind, Finely chopped

Method

1. Place a pressure cooker over medium heat and add enough tallow or ghee to coat the bottom. Sweat the celery, leeks and carrots, approximately 10 min. Once soft, remove from the pan and set aside.
2. Return the pan to the heat and add a bit more tallow/ghee, cook the mushrooms for approximately 10 minutes until caramelized. Set aside with other veg.
3. Place the pan back on the heat, add more tallow/ghee and cook the onions and star anise. Cook for 10-15 minutes or until soft and caramelized. Add all of the cooked vegetables back in the pan and cook for an additional 5 minutes, remove from the pan.
4. Add a splash of water to deglaze the bottom of the pan. Add the liquid to the cooked vegetables.
5. To braise the oxtail and oxcheek, place a deep pan over a medium-high heat. Once smoking hot, add enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan and brown the tail and cheek pieces, in batches if necessary.  It is necessary to be very very hot in order to create a browning reaction that adds to the meaty flavour, dont overcrowd the pan, or it will stew and not sear!
6. Once the tail and cheek pieces are well browned, tip any excess fat out of the pan, return to the heat and deglaze by adding the red wine and brandy. Flame off the alcohol by setting fire to the fumes carefully with a match.
7. Once the flames have died, add the tomatoes, bay leaf, cooked vegetables as well as the browned oxtail, pepper, salt and stock. Bring the pressure cooker to full pressure, reduce the heat and cook for 2-3 hours.
8. After 2-3 hours, place the pressure cooker in a sink of iced water to cool completely before removing the lid. Once cool, remove the oxtails from the liquid and pick the meat from the bones. The cheeks will be falling apart, remove them and break into small pieces.  Strain and discard the vegetables and return the liquid to the pan. Place over a high heat to reduce by two-thirds or until a thick glaze is formed, something like a gravy consistency, removing any scum that comes to the surface with a ladle.
9. Remove the pan from the heat and save some sauce aside in a jug to pour over the pie later. Add the picked meat and the sauce and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Stir together to create a consistency similar to the old Aussie meat pie.  It should be somewhat oozy…:)  Put into a casserole dish
10. Boil the peeled and chopped parsnips for 10-15 minutes until soft.  I did them in the Thermomix by adding raw milk at the start and cooking on setting 4 at 100C, by the time the parsnips had softened, they were already emulsifying with the milk and had become creamy….If you boil them, just strain off the liquid, add the cream or milk, the butter, and season with salt and pepper, then blitz with a hand blender until silky.  You can ad chopped Continental Parsley here too, as well as the Parmesan.
11. Cover the Pie mixture with the parsnip puree, and put into a 200C oven for 10-15 minutes, until the pie top has turned a Golden Brown
12. Serve with Chopped Continental Parsley and Lemon rind sprinkled over top