When I lived in France I would often get oxtail at the local butcher's because it was cheap and easy to cook. With very little hands on time, and because of the collagen in the bones, this particular cut of meat turns the sauce of any dish you make with it into an absolutely wonderful sticky sauce with a fantastic, slightly gelatinous mouthfeel that absorbs any flavor that you throw its way.
Nowadays everyone seems to have discovered oxtail and prices certainly reflect that. Still, once or twice a year it is a delicious treat on a cold evening. This would taste delightful with mashed potatoes but I served this with mashed carrots on the side instead, whose color I thought would look lovely with the broth from the stew, which is essentially composed of the flavorful lentils which have absorbed most of the broth and beef juices, and just enough remaining liquid to drizzle around the edges of your plate (hence the moniler of "lentil gravy" in the title above)
2 lbs oxtail
1 cup dry red wine
1 cup tomato sauce, homemade or jarred
3/4 cup water
1 cup dried lentils, NOT the orange ones which cook too quickly for this
1 punnet button mushrooms, quarter the mushrooms
1 bunch spinach, roughly chopped
2 tsps olive oil
1/2 tsp dried thyme
Salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 300.
Heat the oil in an oven safe dish on the stove top. As soon as it is sizzling, add the oxtails (depending on the size of your pan, you may have to do this in batches). Salt and pepper well, sprinkle with some of the thyme and cook over medium heat until the oxtail pieces are a rich brown, 2-3 minutes. Turn the pieces over, salt, pepper, add thyme and cook on the other side for an additional 2-3 minutes.
Turn off the heat under the pan. Add the red wine, 1/2 cup of the water and the rest of the thyme. Cover and place in the oven for 2 1/2 hours, checking from time to time. Add the remaining 1/4 cup of water if it looks as though the dish is getting dry.
After 2 1/2 hours, add the tomato sauce, the remaining water (if not used above), the mushrooms and the lentils. Stir to combine and return to the oven for an additional 30 minutes.
Remove from the oven. Check the broth for seasoning, add more salt and pepper if needed. Check the lentils for doneness; you may need to cook this an additional 10 to 15 minutes.
When the lentils are cooked to your taste, remove the pan from the oven and stir in the chopped spinach. Cover and set aside while you dish out the rest of the meal. By then, the spinach will have wilted nicely into the sauce.
For a more healthy dish, you can make this the day before and let it rest overnight in the fridge. The flavors will further marry and the next day before you reheat it, you will be able to lift a thin disk of beef fat from the surface of the dish.
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