Ox-tail Ragu

I wish I was cool with eating offal but I’m not, just the thought of tucking into a plate of sautéed lambs brains or roasted cow heart makes me feel queasy. I am ok with tails, though, specifically ox-tails. I buy them from the Marion Plains people at the markets and it comes chopped in chunks, so I can mostly forget that it's a tail. As is the rule with muscular cuts of meat, long slow cooking is the way to go. Steaks do nothing for me, but  braised beef, tender and falling off the bone, makes me salivate. This recipe comes from the Careme pastry website and is used to make individual pies. Whenever I make them there is always some mixture left over. It is very rich on its own but mixed with some passata makes the perfect ragu for fresh tagliatelli or papperdelle.

Ingredients: 

Approx. 1.4kg Oxtail

Olive oil

1 carrot diced

1 brown onion diced

1 celery stalk diced

4 plump cloves garlic sliced

500ml full bodied red wine (Shiraz or Cabernet Sauvignon)

2 x 400g tin plum tomatoes

Zest of one orange

1 tablespoon fennel seeds ground

1 tablespoon black peppercorns ground

3 sprigs rosemary

2 bay leaves

500ml vegetable stock

tomato passata 

See here for fresh pasta

Method:

Preheat oven to 160C*. Pre heat pan, season and lightly flour the meat. Add a tablespoon of olive oil to the pan once hot and seal meat in batches. Remove and set to one side. Now add the carrot, onion, celery and garlic to the same pan, scraping the bottom of the pan to remove any meat residue, sauté until soft.

Return meat to the pan add the wine, tomatoes, orange zest, spices, herbs and stock, ensuring the meat is submerged, if need be top up with a little water or more stock. Bring to a simmer, cover with lid and place in the oven for 4 hours.

Once cooked remove meat from the pan and set aside to cool. Once cool enough to handle pick the meat from the bones – discard bones.

Reduce the remaining sauce by approximately half until rich and thick – check sauce for seasoning. Once reduced add meat back to the sauce, remove from heat and transfer to a container and place in the fridge to cool (ideally for 24 hours).

Use to make pies or add 3 (or to taste) cups of passata to 1 cup of the oxtail mixture. 

Meat Patties

It's dangerous to make general comments about hamburgers. They have the potential to make a tasty, nutritious and satisfying meal. Obviously, though, there are also the bad sort. For an experiment, one of my sister's friends ate a month old maccas hamburger that hadn't been kept in the fridge, just in its original packaging. And they were fine! Apparently the burger looked the same and tasted pretty much the same as a fresh one. That is disturbing on so many levels. Anyway, on the flip side, home made burger patties: easy to make and they freeze very well. Serve them however you desire. At the moment my favourite combo is hummus, tomato and rocket on toasted sourdough. 

Meat Patties:

Ingredients:

500g organic chuck steak, trimmed (leave some fat) 

olive oil 

1 brown onion, finely sliced

1 clove of garlic, finely sliced

1 chilli (or to taste) finely chopped

handful of parsley, chopped

tbslp chopped rosemary

1/2 cup of fresh breadcrumbs

1/4 cup milk 

salt and pepper

Method:

Heat up a small frypan over a low heat, add the oil, add the onion and chilli and cook slowly until the onion is translucent, but no browning. Add the garlic cook for 30 seconds or so. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Soak the breadcrumbs in the milk. Grind up the meat, add some salt and pepper, the herbs, onion mix and breadcrumbs. Shape into 5 balls and flatten into patties, wrap in cling wrap and freeze, or place in the fridge for half and hour or so to firm up before cooking. Cook on a griddle pan set over low to medium heat on each side until cooked through, about 5-7 mins each side. Serve preferred way. 

Serves 5. 

Simple Beetroot Dip

My birthday is on December 26, the day after Christmas. In a lot of ways, it's a really crappy day to have a birthday. People are hungover, stuffed full of food and sick of celebrating. On the other hand, it's a public holiday and i've never had to work or study. This year I had a few friends over and kept things simple as I was pretty pooped from Christmas day preparations. I just made a few dips, a tabouli and some baked olives. Everybody mixed their own drinks, the most popular being fresh drinking coconuts from Thailand spiked with Bacardi. This beetroot dip was the easiest to prepare and added a vivid streak of colour to the spread. 

Ingredients: 

4 medium sized beetroots

1/2 to 2/3 cup Labne*

1/2 large lemon, juiced

salt and pepper

Method: 

Pre-heat the oven to 200*C, line an ovenproof dish with baking paper. Trim the stems of the beets 2 cm from the base, rinse clean. Place in the baking dish, drizzle with olive oil and cover with foil. Bake for 2 1/2 hours, or until tender when pierced with a skewer. Leave to cool enough to handle, slip of skins. Coarsely grate beets into a bowl, stir in the yogurt, lemon juice, salt and pepper until well combined. Serve with pita bread, cibatta or wraps. 

* Mix a teaspoon of salt into 1 to 1 1/2 cup of natural yogurt, place into a strainer lined with muslin over a bowl and leave for a few hours or overnight.