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Neil Perry's braised sour oxtail

Neil Perry
Neil Perry

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Neil Perry's braised sour oxtail
Neil Perry's braised sour oxtail William Meppem

This is a perfect winter braise to serve with a bowl of steaming rice or noodles. I love the sour fruitiness the tamarind brings to the dish. You can substitute any braising cut of beef such as shin, brisket or chuck; lamb shoulder works well with these flavours, too. I also like to change the vegetables and have used pumpkin or yam, or chopped green beans, on occasion.

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Ingredients

For the spice paste

  • 6 long red chillies, seeded

  • 6 green bird's-eye chillies, chopped

  • sea salt

  • 5 red eschalots (french shallot), chopped

  • 5 cloves garlic, chopped

  • 1 tbsp fresh turmeric, chopped, or 1 tsp ground turmeric

  • 5 makrut lime leaves, sliced

  • 2 hearts of lemongrass, crushed

  • 4cm piece galangal, chopped

For the braise

  • 1kg oxtail, trimmed of fat

  • 2 cups tamarind purée

  • 8 cups fresh chicken stock

  • 6 tbsp palm sugar

  • 5 tbsp fish sauce

  • 100g potatoes, peeled and cut into 3cm cubes

  • 10 cherry tomatoes, halved

  • salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

  • 3 red eschalots (french shallot), finely sliced and fried until golden

  • 3 tbsp coriander leaves

Method

  1. 1. Using a mortar and pestle, pound the chillies and salt to a rough paste. Add eschalots, garlic and turmeric and continue to pound, then add lime leaves, lemongrass and galangal and pound to a fine paste.

    2. Put the oxtail into a large pot and add the spice paste, tamarind purée, chicken stock, palm sugar and fish sauce. Bring to the boil and then reduce heat to a gentle simmer. After 2 hours, add the potatoes and tomatoes and simmer for a further hour. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.

    3. To serve, transfer oxtail to a bowl, ladle the sauce over and sprinkle with fried eschalots and coriander leaves. 

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Neil PerryNeil Perry is a restaurateur, chef and former Good Weekend columnist.

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