Braised oxtail with basil dumplings

Recipe uploaded by

Barney Desmazery

1 rating

Recipe by Barney Desmazery

Subscribe to Good Food magazine - 3 issues for £3

Tested

Leave a comment or rate this recipe

1. Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Season the flour with salt and pepper, then toss the oxtail in it until evenly coated. Heat the oil in a large flameproof casserole. Working in batches, brown the meat really well on all sides. Remove from the pan, then add the veg and garlic and fry for 3-4 mins until starting to colour. Stir in the tomato purée and herbs. Tip the meat back into the pan, pour over the wine, then crumble in the stock cube. Season, cover the pan and braise in the oven for 3 hrs until the meat is meltingly tender. Can be cooked up to 2 days ahead. If you make it ahead, chill in the fridge and lift any fat off the top before reheating.
2. To make the dumplings, tip the flour and basil (reserving a few leaves for a garnish) into a food processor with a generous pinch of salt, then blitz until the basil is finely chopped. Add the butter and blitz until it's the texture of breadcrumbs, then gradually add the egg whites until everything comes together. On a floured surface, roll the dumplings into small, walnut-size balls, then cover with a tea towel until ready to cook.
3. To serve, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Simmer dumplings for 15 mins, then remove with a slotted spoon. While the dumplings are cooking, gently reheat the meat in the sauce. Serve a few chunks of meat in a soup bowl with a few dumplings, drizzled with olive oil and scattered with a few basil leaves.

Oxtail

This is the tail meat from cattle and, when slow-cooked, is one of the tastiest cuts of beef. You may see whole oxtail in the butchers, but for most dishes you will want it jointed into pieces. As the oxtail has a thick and a thin end, the pieces will vary in size - you will need two large pieces per serving. Oxtail should be neatly jointed without any splintery bits of bone attached to the meat.

Per serving

812 kcalories, protein 53g, carbohydrate 50g, fat 41 g, saturated fat 17g, fibre 4g, salt 2.08 g

Latest comments and suggestions

• michele

  18 September 2008

  michele commented on this recipe

  I am 64 yrs old and have always assumed that dumplings were made using suet! I found this recipe and they were stunning. Light and fuffly and perfect with beef stew. I wi use this recipe from now on. Thank you.

  Flag as inappropriate

  Please let us know your name and the reason you find the above comment inappropriate.

  Your name: Reason:
• schubun

  03 November 2008

  schubun rated and commented on this recipe

  

  Very disappointed with this recipe, made this as the weekend for Sunday lunch we halved the recipe and after 3 hours cooking time all we were left with was a dry casserole dish with burnt vegetables on the bottom, I can only assume that the oven temp it too high to cook for 3 hours, or is there additional stock to go in as well as the 1/2 bottle of wine as it only said to crumble in a stock cube - very disappointed but the dumplings were lovely and very easy to make just a shame about the stew. So am still on the hunt for a good slow cooked Oxtail recipe.

  Flag as inappropriate

  Please let us know your name and the reason you find the above comment inappropriate.

  Your name: Reason:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/5534/

Your binder

• Register
• Sign in
• More info

Save your favourite recipes; add, rate and comment on recipes. Plus, get our newsletter.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 2 oxtail , jointed and cut into pieces
• 4 tbsp sunflower oil , for frying
• 2 onions , chopped
• 3 carrots , cut into small chunks
• 2 celery sticks, cut into small chunks
• 2 garlic cloves , chopped
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• bay leaves and thyme sprigs, tied together
• 1 bottle full-bodied red wine

FOR THE DUMPLINGS

• 300g self-raising flour
• bunch basil leaves, removed
• 75g butter
• 3 egg whites
• olive oil , for drizzling

Search Good Food

Keywords

Filter search

Recipes All this site The web

Refine your recipe search

Search filter options

Search by cooking times Less than 10 minutes 10-30 minutes 35-60 minutes Over an hour Search by difficulty Easy Moderately easy For the keen cook Search by cuisine American British Cajun & Creole Caribbean French German Greek Indian Italian Mediterranean Mexican Moroccan Scottish Spanish Swiss Thai Vietnamese Search by course Warm starter Cold starter Main course Side dish Pudding Search by calorie range Less than 200 200-400 400-600 600-800 Over 800 Search by occasion Midweek meal Dinner party Family favourite Birthdays Christmas New Year Mother's Day Chinese New Year Easter Search by chef Good Food Team olive Angela Nilsen Annabel Karmel Anthony Worral Thompson Gary Rhodes Gordon Ramsay James Martin John Torode Ken Hom Lesley Waters Mary Cadogan Merrilees Parker Nick Nairn Orlando Murrin Ruth Watson Silvana Franco Thane Prince Tony Tobin Search by diet Vegetarian Vegan Gluten-free Dairy-free Nut-free Egg-free Low-fat Low in salt Suitable for diabetics Search by magazine BBC Good food olive Search by servings 1 2 4 6 8 For a crowd

Difficulty and servings

Serves 6

Preperation and cooking times

Prep 20 mins

Cook min 3 hrs 30 mins

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 2 oxtail , jointed and cut into pieces
• 4 tbsp sunflower oil , for frying
• 2 onions , chopped
• 3 carrots , cut into small chunks
• 2 celery sticks, cut into small chunks
• 2 garlic cloves , chopped
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• bay leaves and thyme sprigs, tied together
• 1 bottle full-bodied red wine

FOR THE DUMPLINGS

• 300g self-raising flour
• bunch basil leaves, removed
• 75g butter
• 3 egg whites
• olive oil , for drizzling

Per serving

812 kcalories, protein 53g, carbohydrate 50g, fat 41 g, saturated fat 17g, fibre 4g, salt 2.08 g

Your binder

Here are three other great reasons why to sign up:

• You get an online binder, where you can store all your favourite recipes and create menus.
• You can add your own recipes to this site for others to try; plus, rate and make comments on recipes, and share your views on our blog.
• You can sign up for our weekly newsletter (sent out on Wednesdays) - it's packed with recipes, special offers and competitions.