Food
Lyndey Milan’s Oxtail and spring vegetable salad
Preparation time
15 Minutes
Cooking time
4 hrs – best started day prior
Serves
4
Try a spicy, medium weight red with the oxtail salad. The Delatite Tempranillo 2015 in Victoria impresses with its medium weight and savoury appeal. Although showing some dried fruit-like concentration, it remains fine and fresh throughout.
INGREDIENTS
1kg oxtail, cut in pieces
1/3 cup (80ml) extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, cut into 1cm dice
2 carrots, cut into 1cm dice
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
4 sprigs of thyme
3 star anise
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp ground ginger
1 cup (100g) plain flour
2 cups (500ml) chicken or beef stock
1 cup (250ml) red wine
Salad
200g mesclun
160g snowpeas, blanched
100g shelled broad beans, cooked
4 chat potatoes, boiled, sliced
Dressing
1 tbsp cider or sherry vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
¼ cup (60ml) extra virgin olive oil
METHOD
1. Preheat oven to 160ºC (140ºC fan-forced) Place large frying pan over medium–high heat and add 2 tablespoons oil. Cook onion and carrot until softened, approx. 5–10 minutes. Add garlic and thyme and cook
for a couple of minutes more. Place in a 3–4 litre casserole dish with star anise.
2. Toss oxtail in a plastic bag with seasoning, ginger and flour. Heat remaining olive oil in the same frying pan and brown oxtail, in batches, until golden all over. Drain on paper towel and then add to casserole.
Cover with wine and stock and top up with water until completely covered. Cover with a piece of baking paper and lid and bake in oven for 3 ½ hours or until oxtail is tender and beginning to fall off the bone.
3. Drain the oxtail in a colander over a bowl to reserve the sauce. Remove the oxtail and push the remaining solids to extract as much as possible into the sauce. Discard remainder. When the oxtail is cool enough to handle remove the meat from the bone and add to the sauce. Refrigerate several hours or overnight.
4. Remove solidified fat from the surface of the oxtail mixture. Place mixture into a medium saucepan and warm. Strain oxtail and return sauce to saucepan over high heat to reduce and thicken.
5. Whisk dressing ingredients together and season. Toss through greens and divide between the serving plates. Spoon piles of oxtail onto potato slices around the salad with a thin coating of sauce.