Oxtail Ravioli
Andrew Kai
Oxtail stew
1 oxtail (segmented)
½ onion
2 carrots
2 celery stalks
3 garlic cloves
Tablespoon tomato paste
1 can of tinned tomatoes
Red wine
1 sprig thyme
1 bay leaf
Beef stock
Salt & pepper
Dust the oxtail pieces with flour and salt. Heat a non-stick pan and add a generous amount of olive oil. Brown off both sides of the oxtail and place to one side. In a pot, start sweating off the onions, carrots and celery with some olive oil. Once transparent, add garlic and tomato paste and cook for a further 3 minutes. Add red wine and reduce 2/3. Cover with stock; add thyme and a bay leaf. Bring to the boil and simmer for at least 3 ½ hours. Remove the meat and wait until it cools. With your hands, strip all meat from the bone. It should be tender and flaky. Set aside.
Mushroom stock
1 onion
2 small carrots
1 celery stalk
2 garlic cloves
1 spring thyme
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs parsley
500g white button mushrooms
Water
Keep it simple. Dice up all ingredients as fine as you can. Mix together and season. In a large stockpot, add some oil and wait until it heats up. Once it’s hot, add ingredients and sweat off. It’s important to brown the ingredients a bit to get a beautiful golden colour. Add water (as much as you want), bring to a boil then simmer for at least an hour. The longer you cook, the stronger the flavour. Skim now and then. When you’re ready, pour into a strainer and chill.
Fresh egg pasta
600g “Doppio Zero” flour
6 large free-range eggs/12 yolks
Place the flour onto a spacious, flat surface and make a well. Add eggs into centre. Knead and roll. The more you knead it, the less glutinous it will be when cooked. So be patient and give your arms a good workout. Make a ball and cover with cling film when done. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour.
We want the ravioli as thin as possible; the end result must be almost transparent. So prepare for another work out if you don’t have a pasta machine. Cut into smaller pieces, and piece by piece, roll and fold. Remember to dust the worktop with flour to prevent sticking and once each piece is rolled and you move onto another, cover the finished one with a damp towel.
If you have a pasta machine, work your way through the thickest/highest setting to the thinnest/lowest. Repeat each level twice, this may seem like it’s not doing anything but you’re basically re-working the dough, which in pasta, is vital. Once you’ve reached your thickness, cut into circular shapes with a mould or even coffee cup and lay a wet towel over the dough until ready to assemble.
Mushroom Consommé
500g white button mushrooms
300g dried porcini mushrooms
½ onion
1 carrot
1 celery stalk
3 egg whites
25ml madeira
1 cup mushroom stock
1 sprig thyme
Boil some water and pour over dried porcinis. Leave for half hour, then remove and set aside, keeping the liquid. Finley dice up the mushrooms, onions, carrot and celery or process in a blender (you want it as fine as possible). In a mixing bowl, add all ingredients including the porcinis, egg and madeira. Put all the ingredients in a long, thick-based pot. Add stock and madeira until it reaches the top. Gently bring to a boil and then immediately to a slow simmer. All the ingredients will slowly form a crust on top as a result of the egg whites. Make a hole in the middle. The impurities will slowly rise up to the crust this way and stick to it. Simmer like this for an hour. Once ready, remove crust slowly and strain liquid through a fine sieve or muslin cloth.
Assemble
Lay out the circular pasta shapes on a worktop. Brush sides of pasta with egg yolk. Fill the middle with the oxtail meat (do not over fill as it will spill out when closing the ravioli). Cover each piece of pasta with another circular pasta to make your ravioli. Press down gently on the sides and leave aside (for a few minutes) with some flour around it. They are now ready to be boiled or frozen for future use. Gently bring consommé to a boil and take off heat. Boil ravioli until ready (a few minutes or when they start to float). Place your ravioli in a wide deep-based plate and pour consommé over it. Garnish with tomato concasse, pea shoots or watercress and/or more mushrooms.
