Braised Oxtails with Star Anise

In this week’s episode of The Free Range Cook, Annabel Langbein heads to the limestone hills of Oamaru to source cheese. Again, she is generously sharing recipes from her TV show with Inside Cuisine. And, this week she is sharing two recipes. First here’s her recipe for Braised Oxtails with Star Anise, and then check out her recipe for Parnsip and Carrot Mash side in the next post.

Remember, if you’re want the other recipes from the TV show they’re available in the cookbook of the same name ‘The Free Range Cook’.

Braised Oxtails with Star Anise

Annabel writes “This easy dish is sure to earn you compliments. Asian flavours blend with tomato and orange to give the oxtails a spicy kick and a rich, dark hue. It’s one of those wonderful meals that require very little preparation and cook slowly until the meat is meltingly tender after a couple of hours.”

Prep time10 mins
Cook time 3 hours
Serves 6

18-22 pieces (2-2.4kg) oxtail or beef shin
salt and ground black pepper
2 cups tomato juice
2 cups water
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1/3 cup soy sauce
4 whole star anise
4 dried chillies
2 thumb-sized pieces fresh ginger, thinly sliced (18 slices)
rind of ½ orange, removed with a potato peeler so there is no pith
1 whole head garlic, cloves peeled, halved and trimmed

Pre-heat oven to 220°C and line a large roasting dish with baking paper for easy clean-up. Season the oxtails with salt and pepper and arrange in a single layer in the roasting dish. Roast for 30 minutes until well browned.

Remove oxtails from the roasting dish, discard fat and place oxtails into a lidded casserole dish. In a separate bowl, combine the tomato juice, water, sugar, vinegar and soy sauce. Scatter in the star anise, chillies, sliced ginger, orange rind and garlic cloves.

Pour the liquid over the browned meat, cover with a piece of baking paper to stop any exposed meat from drying out and cover the dish with a tight fitting lid. Turn the oven down to 180˚C and cook for 2½ hours until very tender. This dish can be cooked a day or two ahead, in which case bake for 2 hours then reheat for 40 minutes at 180˚C.