Ingredients

2kg oxtails, trimmed of fat and cut into 4–5cm pieces

salt and freshly ground black pepper

3 tbsp olive oil

2 carrots, roughly chopped

2 celery sticks, roughly chopped

½ leek, roughly chopped

2 onions, roughly chopped

3 sprigs of thyme

3 bay leaves

2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

500ml red wine

500ml beer

1 litre beef stock

400g tin chopped tomatoes

To finish the stew:

4 tomatoes

1 carrot, finely chopped

1 leek, finely chopped, white section only

2 celery sticks, finely chopped

To serve:

chopped fresh parsley

You will also need:

Method

Season the oxtail with salt and black pepper. Heat the oil in a large frying pan and brown the oxtail in a couple of batches on all sides. You’ll need to spend about 2-3 minutes on each side to get a good colour. Transfer the pieces to a bowl and set aside to keep warm.

Add the carrots, celery, leek and onions to the pan with the thyme and bay leaves. Gently cook these for 10–12 minutes on a moderate heat until the onions have softened and are starting to brown at the edges. Now add the garlic and cook for a couple more minutes.

Tip the softened vegetables into the bowl of your slow cooker making sure to scrape every last bit from the pan.  Pour in the wine, beer, stock, chopped tomatoes, some black pepper and the browned oxtail with any collected juices. Don’t add any salt yet as the sauce will be reduced later which will intensify all the flavours. Cook on low for 8 hours.

The oxtail will now be extremely tender; remove the pieces carefully from the slow cooker and set aside on a plate. Sieve the sauce into a bowl using the back of a wooden spoon to push through all the liquid you can from the cooked vegetables. Discard the drained vegetables then pour the sieved liquid into a saucepan and reduce on a medium flame until it’s the consistency of single cream and rich in flavour. This may take up to 20 minutes. Now add a little salt if you feel it needs it.

Meanwhile, with the point of a knife, make a cross at the base of each tomato. Put the tomato skin a heatproof bowl and pour over boiling water until they are submerged, then leave them for 1 minute. Drain and cool them under cold water. The skins should now slip off.

Cut the tomatoes into quarters and remove the seeds, then chop the flesh into small pieces. Put all the finely chopped vegetables into a small saucepan. Add 2 tablespoons of water and cook on high heat, with a lid on, for 3–4 minutes until the vegetables have softened slightly.

Once the meaty sauce has fully reduced and you’re about to serve the dish, add the cooked vegetables and the oxtails back to the sauce to heat through. Then gently mix in the peeled and chopped tomatoes.

Serve with mashed potato and sprinkle with a little chopped parsley.