North African Inspired Oxtail Stew

What do you do when you come across some reduced oxtail during  your search for cheap food? You buy it and then raid your store cupboard for something to do with it! Because at £1.50 you really have no other choice. If you're me that is.

So I come home, raid my recipe books & google to find something that matches what we have and come across this now I had to improvise a little bit not having star anise or shallots readily available & not finding the cinnamon sticks until after i'd added Cinnamon powder but i'm really happy with the result and that i've broken my oxtail cooking virginity!

Oxtail Stew

600g oxtail pieces
2large onions 1 White 1 Red
2 leeks
3 cloves Garlic
3 large carrots
7 or 8 new potatoes
1 butternut Squash
Large Pinch of Cinnamon
Large Pinch of Thyme
Large Pinch of Rosemary
2 crushed cloves
1/2 glass of Red Wine
1 Pint Beef Stock
500g Passata
2 tblsp Balsamic Vinegar
Salt & Pepper

I largely diced the onions and sauteed them off with the leeks, garlic, carrots, halved the potatoes & added the seasoning. I then added the meat, the herbs & spices & started the braising process with the wine & vinegar. After about 10 - 15 minutes I added the stock & passata and then left to simmer with the lid on tight on the a low heat for a good hour. 

After an hour I took the oxtail out, left it to cool & added the squash. I probably should have lowered the heat to the lowest setting and given it another half hour but never having braised before I panicked a wee bit. Still, the meat was cooked but just needed a bit of effort when pulling it off the bone. You live and you learn with these things.when the oxtail was cool enough I stripped the bones & added it back into the stew where i left it again for 10 minutes whilst it reheated through, this time with the lid off.

 

And there you have it, an adaptation of an adaptation but truly yummy. It even got the seal of approval from my housemate who was, to say the least, skeptical when I told him I'd made Oxtail never mind that I'd combined it with a Squash! I think its safe to say this is another successful addition to our list of things to do with a butternut Squash. I'm wondering if this obsession will ever end!

 

Roasted Butternut Squash & Leek Risotto

I make risotto’s all the time. or at least i make my versions of risottos all the time (more about that at a later date) but i had a real urge here to make a proper dish from scratch but wasn’t sure about how to use the ingredients. I’ve never cooked with squash before and my only leek recipe so far is a lamb and leek hotpot (again you’ll hear about that at some point I'm sure) so when i spotted a little 100g ready prepared pack of squash in Tesco (prepared as in peeled cored and cut not seasoned and cooked) i jumped at the chance to use it. and also great as it cuts down prep time and wastage (you couldn’t use a whole squash for just one person!)

Ingredients:

100g butternut squash diced
1 medium onion sliced
1 leek sliced
1/2 cup Arborio rice
Chicken stock (approx 500mls)
Thyme or Sage (2tbsp)
Oil/butter (whatever your preference for frying is)

Optional:
frozen peas (fresh would be amazing but who keeps them as a store item?) or Frozen mixed vegetables as i used (i had a veg’ craving)
Garlic 2cloves finely chopped
1/2 Glass Of White Wine (dry)
1/2 Cup Cream

Preheat the oven to 180 Celsius roast the squash slices for 10 – 15 mins or until just starting to colour then dice them ready for the risotto. whilst the squash was roasting sauté the onions and leeks (and garlic if used) in the butter until soft and shimmering but not brown, you don’t want any colour in this risotto other than the green and orange of the veg’. Add the rice and continue to stir until it starts become opaque at the edges. start adding the warm stock a ladle at a time, stirring gently & waiting until the liquid is absorbed before adding more.

now if you’re using white wine you would add it in before the stock. the only reason I'm not using it myself is that i don’t have any and didn’t want to go to the shops to get some just for one 1/2 cup. you may need more or less stock depending on if you use the wine/cream.

Once the stock is fully absorbed add the squash, herbs, peas and cream and allow the veg’ to be reheated and the cream to be absorbed. Another tip if the herbs are dried you may want to add them a little earlier so that they can rehydrate a bit in the stock. Once the peas are cooked that's the Risotto complete. Because i didn’t have any cream i stirred another knob of butter (well… flora actually) through just to give a bit a shine. Dish up, top with parmesan and chopped parsley if you have some and serve.

Remember to taste as you go along to make sure its well seasoned and more importantly, tastes nice. as for seasoning i haven’t needed to use any as i used a Knorr chicken stock pot and stock cubes/pots tend to have salt in them anyway and I'm not a big salt fan.

The result was yummy, very clean and fresh and the sweetness of the squash worked really well but this was my first try so i’ll probably tweak it a bit to perfect the recipe. I’ll try it with the wine, cream and garlic next time just to see what difference it makes. This serves 2 very decent portions so if you’re on your own then simply pop the rest into a Tupperware box (those plastic microwave safe tubs Chinese's use are great if you don’t want to buy Tupperware) and either keep in the fridge for the next day or freeze.

Enjoy!

A hungry traveller stops at a monastery and is taken to the kitchens. A brother is frying chips. 'Are you the friar?' he asks. 'No. I'm the chip monk,' he replies.
St Crispun - Southampton UK