What better place to cook a traditional dish than among the vineyards of Rioja? Txebiko, chef and owner of the Cachetero restaurant gives us tips on preparing the slow-cooked dish of oxtail in red wine. Bodegas Montecillo’s winemaker will accompany him in the process of making this delicious recipe.
It is very important to start off with high quality and fresh ingredients, you should be able to find the best oxtail to make this stew in traditional butchers or markets. The butcher should cut the tail along the vertebrae to give a clean cut and allow the sauce to soak into the meat.
In «Cachetero: more than a hundred years’ of traditional Riojan cookery» you can find the best wine to pair with this satisfying dish.
Preparation:
1. Season the oxtail, coat in flour and shake to remove any excess flour.
2. Place in a saucepan over a medium heat and fry the oxtail until deep brown. Remove and drain on absorbent kitchen paper.
3. In a large saucepan fry half the garlic until golden in a little oil. Add the finely diced onion along with the leek and carrot. Gently fry the vegetables until golden and remove from the heat.
4. Drain the vegetables in a colander to remove the excess oil. Put the vegetables back in a saucepan, add the fried oxtail and cover with red wine. Add water in the proportion of 90% wine to 10% water, cover and cook for between an hour and a half and two hours depending on the type of meat.
5. Remove from the heat and leave to cool. Remove the pieces of oxtail and blend the rest of the ingredients to make a sauce. Then pass it through a fine sieve and reduce over a low heat until it reaches the required thickness. To serve, first heat the oxtail with the sauce. Accompany the dish with a potato and celery puree.
The Cachetero touch:
Although called oxtail, this cut can come from veal or beef. The first is more delicate while the second is more tender although it has a little more fat and takes longer to cook.
Wine pairing:
The perfect wine to serve with a juicy oxtail is a full-bodied red: the elegance and balance of Montecillo Reserva Selección Especial 2001, with its polished tannins, freshness and long finish it is the ideal choice. This wine is so special that we recommend decanting it beforehand.
Ingredients (to serve 4):
1 whole oxtail
1 onion
2 leeks
1/2 carrot
1 bulb of garlic
Wheat flour
Salt
1l of red wine
Difficulty: moderate
Preparation time: 150 minutes
