Oxtail and Pig's Ear Stew

Name: Oxtail and Pig's Ear Stew
Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients: ½ lb carrots, cut into pieces; ½ lb onions, coarsely chopped; 1 bottle of Cahors or other good, rustic, young, deeply colored red wine; about 3 tbsp olive oil; 1 in thick slice streaky salt pork, cut crosswise into about 12 wedges; section of leek or leek greens; 1 onion, thinly sliced; finely chopped fresh parsley; 2 bay leaves; 1 celery stalk; branches of thyme and parsley (or parsley root); 1 lb small firm-fleshed potatoes; 1–2 carrots, thinly sliced; about ¼ cup flour; about 1 tbsp olive oil; additional wine or stock or water; 1 large or 2 smaller oxtails, cut into sections, weighing about 4–5 lb in total; large pinch of sugar; 3–4 garlic cloves, crushed beneath a knife blade; large pinch of mixed dried herbs; 2 pig’s ears; salt; about 2 heads (24–30 cloves) fresh, unsprouted garlic, peeled

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Complex

Appears in

Ten Vineyard Lunches

By Richard Olney

Published 1988

About

Except for variations in garnish and the presence of the pig’s ears, this is a very basic stew type: boeuf à la Bourguignonne, coq-au-vin and matelote of veal are all essentially the same recipe, and pork, lamb, rabbit, wild boar and venison stews can be prepared in the same way. From the larger animals, gelatinous cuts — shanks or neck — are the best and the cheapest. Civets of hare or rabbit (wild or hutch) are the same except that the sauce is thickened with the animal’s blood at the las

Ingredients

Main course

Ingredients

Method