One of Kevin Myers' main courses from the RTÉ series 'The Restaurant'.
Ingredients
- 5 kg oxtail
- 50 g flour
- 3 tblsp vegetable oil
- 6 sticks celery
- 10 carrots
- 6 onions
- 1 bottle red wine
- 300 ml chicken stock
- 1 oz kidney
- for the pastry:
- 300 g self-raising flour (sifted)
- 150 g suet
- 1 tsp salt
- 200 ml water
- 1 tblsp butter
- salt and black pepper
Method
- Pre-heat the oven to 160ºC / Gas 3.
- Sift the flour onto a plate and season with salt and pepper.
- Dip the oxtails in it and coat evenly.
- Heat half the oil in a frying pan and sear the oxtails until brown and remove from the pan.
- Next, trim the celery, carrots and onions and chop roughly.
- Place them in a baking tray and arrange the oxtail on top.
- De-glaze the frying-pan with some of the wine and pour this over the baking tray.
- Pour the rest of the wine over the meat and top up with the chicken stock.
- Cover the tray with tin foil and bake in the pre-heated oven for 3½ hours.
- Remove the oxtails from the tray and set aside to cool.
- Strain the juices from the tray and put in a pot on the stove and bring to a boil, and them simmer and reduce until the liquid has a sauce-like consistency.
- When the oxtails are cool, remove the meat from the bones and set aside.
- Meanwhile clean the kidney removing any rough sinews and chop into even-sized chunks.
- Dip the kidneys in the seasoned flour and pan-fry in the rest of the oil until they are cooked.
- Remove from the pan and drain on some kitchen paper and set aside.
- Make the pudding pastry by grating the suet finely.
- Place in a bowl with the flour and salt.
- Mix everything together and add in the water.
- Work the pastry until it forms a dough (it may need a little extra water to get the right texture).
- Then roll out into shapes and sizes to suit your moulds.
- To assemble the puddings, grease the moulds with a little butter and line with pastry.
- Fill with oxtail meat and kidney meat and season with salt and pepper.
- Pour in some of the reduced sauce and fold over the pastry and steam the puddings for 20 minutes.
- Serve the puddings in a dish with some sauce and some crispy vegetables on the side.
