OXTAIL STEW WITH CHITTERLING SAUSAGE

Serves: 4-6
Preparation time: Overnight brining, then half an hour preparation
Cooking time: 3 and a half hours

METHOD

1. Brine the oxtail and trotter if you are using one overnight, in a salt and water brine.
2. Preheat the oven to 150°C. Take a good sized casserole or stewpot. Fry off gently cubes of smoked belly pork and as many slices of chitterling sausage as you feel comfortable with.
3. Add a sliced white onion and half a peeled head of garlic. Gently sweat till soft and the smells start to come alive.
4. Lay in your oxtail and add some peeled carrots cut into good sized chunks. I put a couple of apples cut into similar sized chunks in too at this stage – the sweeter eating kind, that hold their shape a bit, though after a few hours in this lot, they pretty much disappear leaving just the ghost of their scent.
5. Then turn the heat up for a couple of seconds and listen till you hear all the ingredients really start to squeal, and chuck in a glass of very good calvados. You should smell a subtle appley scent as the spirit begins to evaporate.
6. Pop in some herbs and spices – I think some lemon thyme works well and a bayleaf or two, as well as some peppercorns and a couple of cloves, or perhaps some whole pimenton.
7. Once the alcohol has evaporated, add some very nice chicken stock (I think chicken stock and not beef or veal as it imparts a lightness to it, or rather the end result is not quite as heavy) to cover your oxtail. Place in your preheated oven and leave for three and a half to four hours.
8. Remove from the oven and uncover. Remove the oxtail pieces from the stew, add a dash of cream to carry on the Norman theme, plenty of chopped parsley, check the seasoning, mix together a couple of times and replace the oxtail.
9. Serve with haricot puree, or potato and celeriac mashed together and seasoned with nutmeg and pepper. You'll also need some greens, sprouting broc is nice, or spring greens. You can make the leftovers into oxtail brawn by adding a brined trotter before cooking, and after eating, remove as many vegetables as is practical, remove the bones, and ladle the whole lot into a dish or terrine mould. Break up any chunks of meat with a fork and let it set in the fridge. Serve with pickled cucumbers and mustard.
10. Get someone else to wash the pot up.

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