Method
Roll oxtail in seasoned Plain flour then Brown off in a large pan on all sides. Once evenly caramelised set aside in a casserole dish.
Brown off Bacon in the same pan you used to caramelise oxtail in. Once browned set aside in the casserole dish with the oxtail.
Add a little more oil and butter to the pan and caramelise onions, carrots, leeks, celery and garlic. In a separate pan caramelise button mushrooms. Once caramelised add all vegetables to the casserole dish.
Cut tomatoes in half and place flat side down on a tray with a little water. Place in oven at 180oC and roast until soft and caramelised. Once caramelised add to the casserole dish.
Deglaze pan with port and madeira and reduce add red wine and again reduce by half. Once reduced add to the casserole dish with the oxtail, bacon and caramelised vegetables.
Cover the casserole dish with tin foil and place in oven at 100oC for three hours or until tender.
Once cool enough to handle pass stock from casserole through a fine sieve. Reserve all meat but throw away vegetables.
Pick all meat from oxtail making sure you leave the pieces fairly large, cut the bacon into bite size pieces.
Reduce stock until it’s the consistency of a rich gravy, then finish with herbs, seasoning and lemon juice. Pass through fine sieve again.
Kidneys
Method:
Remove all fat from kidneys and cut into bite size pieces.
Place kidneys in a pan of cold water and bring to the boil, once boiled rinse for five minutes under cold water.
Place kidneys in a clean pan, cover with cold water add all other ingredients and simmer for 1.5 hours or until tender. Let cool in stock.
Ham Hocks
Method:
Place ham hock in a pan of cold water and bring to the boil, once boiled rinse under cold water for five minutes.
Return ham hock to pan and cover with cold water and all other ingredients.
Simmer for two hours or until hock is tender.
Mushrooms and Melted Onions
1kg sliced onions
200g nice meaty mushrooms (button, wood blewits, horse)
200g butter
Method:
Thinly slice onions.
Melt 200g butter in a pan, sweat onions at a low temperature then melt onions for four hours or until completely tender.
Once the onions are cooked, drain off excess fat and store in fridge until required.
Quarter mushrooms then fry off until golden brown in butter.
Once golden, drain off excess butter and set aside until required.
Remove from stock, pick all meat into bite size pieces and keep to one side until required.
Pie top pastry
To finish the pies
These weights are for individual pies
100g pastry for each pie
90g oxtail
25g kidneys
10g bacon
25g ham hock
5g mushrooms
20g melted onions
120g sauce
Egg wash: egg yolk and a little water mixed
Method:
Season each element of the pie then place all above ingredients into a pie dish.
Roll 100g balls of pastry into 15 cm circles, place over entire pie and crimp around pie dish.
Cut edges with a knife so that the pie is tidy. Make a small criss-cross in the centre of the pie with the tip of a knife and rest in the fridge.
Egg wash pie before placing in the oven
Then cook at 200oC for 12 minutes or until golden brown. Serve immediately.