Oxtail Stew with Horseradish and Toasted Walnut Mash

Serves: 4

Ingredients

Parsnip and horseradish crisps
30g caster sugar
2 parsnips
1 fresh horseradish root

Mash
225g toasted walnuts, chopped
1 level tablespoon freshly grated horseradish
900g Desiree or King Edward potatoes
180g salted butter
150ml crème fraîche

Oxtail stew
2 oxtails with bones intact, cut into 5cm chunks
Seasoned flour
340g carrots
225g onions
30g beef dripping
250ml red wine
1 litre good beef stock or Campbell's consommé
1 tsp chopped thyme
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon tomato purée
Juice of ½ lemon

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 150°C/gas 2. Toss the oxtail in the seasoned flour. Peel the carrots and onions and slice thickly. Melt the dripping in a heavy pan and brown the oxtail evenly. This may need to be done in batches. Put the oxtail in a roasting tin and roast in the oven for 2 hours, turning twice. Turn the oven off. Remove the oxtail and skim the roasting tin, removing the fat, not the juices.
2. Brown the carrots and onions in the roasting tin and add the oxtail. Pour over the wine and stock and add the thyme, salt, pepper and sugar. Bring to the boil and simmer for 1 hour. Skim off the scum.
3. Preheat the oven again to 150°C/gas 2. Remove the meat and vegetables from the roasting tin and place in a casserole.
4. Add the tomato purée and the lemon juice to the remaining juices, bring quickly to the boil and reduce by one third. Pour over the meat and vegetables. Cover the casserole and place in the oven for 2 hours until the meat is very tender.
5. Peel the potatoes and boil until soft. Drain well then return to the pan with the butter and crème fraîche. Season with salt and pepper. Add the horseradish and the walnuts and combine well.
6. Peel the parsnip and horseradish. Using a vegetable peeler, shave the roots, creating wafer-thin strips, as long as you can get. The cores of the roots can be woody. If this is the case, don't use them.
7. Coat the horseradish crisps in sugar. Deep-fry the parsnip strips then the horseradish strips in very hot, clean oil. Drain well and season with salt.
8. Serve the stew on the mash with a sprinkling of parsley, some walnuts and a parsnip and horseradish crisp balanced on top.