She started after work yesterday, and was still going at midnight, only 2 more days to go then...
I'm not having any obviously.
Now that winter is tightening its grip and the nights are closing in, I reckon that it's time to thrust my braised oxtail recipe on you. The result of long experimentation, this is, I think, a truly definitive winter dish. Stews are what you might call core dishes to our cooking traditions - where the French have their daubes and the Italians their stracotti, we have stews. It may not, perhaps, be as lovely a word as the other two, but a proper stew is a wonderful dish all the same.
The whole purpose of a stew is that it's a way of using up those cuts of meat that can't be cooked in a short time because they contain more connective tissue, muscle fibre and collagen, which toughens up under heat. By subjecting such meat to a gentler heat over a longer period, however, you break down the tissue, turning what was once tough as old boots into soft, gentle nuggets of meat that are as delicious to taste as they are easy to chew.
This recipe requires some time to prepare - you need to start things in motion fully two days before serving - and a long time in the oven, but it really is worth the trouble (I know it seems as if I say something like that every week, but it's especially true of this dish).
Anyway, most of the time involved is, in fact, spent waiting around - you'll probably spend more time getting the ingredients together than hands-on cooking. The cooking isn't very complicated, in any case, nor does it need any special equipment. The whole idea is to lay down layers of flavour - sort of marrying the ingredients together to build richness and complexity.
What is more, the dish has an added advantage in that it can be prepared a few days in advance and then be reheated gently before serving. In fact, like a lot of stews, a period of rest followed by reheating helps to develop the flavours still more. And, of course, you can make it in larger quantities and freeze it for all those cold, grey days.
All recipes serves six.
2 star anise
5 cloves
10 allspice berries
1 orange, zested
1 tsp cracked black pepper
6 medium carrots
6 medium onions
125g unsalted butter
Groundnut oil
4 large leeks
1 head celery
1 bulb garlic
100g tomato purée
350g fresh white button mushrooms
6-8 ripe tomatoes, halved
100ml sherry vinegar
200ml dry white wine
2.5kg oxtail, jointed (make sure your butcher does not fob you off with pieces taken only from the end of the tail, which tends to be scrawnier)
2 tbsp plain flour
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
200ml port
1.5 litres red wine
Bouquet garni consisting of thyme, bay and rosemary (be generous with the herbs)
15g unrefined sugar
150ml red-wine vinegar
At least two days before serving, prepare the marinade. Place the spices, orange zest and black pepper in muslin and tie into a little parcel. (Although this is not essential, it is not especially pleasurable to chew on a whole peppercorn.) Peel, top and tail the carrots, then quarter them lengthways. Peel and quarter the onions (by keeping them in larger pieces, it's easier to remove them later).
Take a casserole large enough to contain all the ingredients for the stew and place it over a medium flame. Add 50g of the butter and about the same quantity of groundnut oil. Add the carrots and, when they begin to brown, add the onions and continue cooking until both the carrots and onions have turned a light golden brown.
Chop the leek and celery and add to the pan. Cut the head of garlic in half, then add this, too (there's no need to bother peeling it or anything). Cook on medium heat for another 10 minutes, then stir in the tomato purée. Cook for a further five minutes, stirring all the time, then remove from the heat and set aside.
Finely slice the mushrooms and in another pan sauté them in 75g of butter until they have released all of their liquid and turned brown. Drain off the excess fat and add to the vegetable mix in the large pan.
Take a casserole or frying pan that is large enough to accommodate the tomatoes, flesh-side down, in one layer with a little more of the groundnut oil. Place the pan on medium heat and leave until the pan side of the tomatoes turns dark brown. Add the sherry vinegar and stand back - if you do not, it will feel as if someone has just sprayed horseradish up your nose. Leave the vinegar to boil off, then add the white wine. Bring to the boil and reduce until a syrupy mush is left. The pan will need to be stirred while the wine is reducing. Scrape this mix into the pan with the other vegetables.
Pat the pieces of oxtail dry and toss them in the flour. Dust off any excess flour, then season generously. Heat a couple of tablespoons of groundnut oil in a large casserole. Add the oxtail and brown over high heat, turning regularly. Do this in several batches, to facilitate even browning. If necessary, change the oil in the pan so that the pieces of oxtail are not being browned in burned oil. Drain the browned pieces of oxtail on kitchen paper and add them to the pot of cooked ingredients.
Place the pan in which the meat was browned on high heat and, after a few minutes, pour in the port. Bring to the boil, the whole time scraping any meat residue off the bottom and sides of the pan, and as soon as the liquid boils, flame and reduce it by half. Add the red wine and repeat the process, again reducing by half. The alcohol will be difficult to ignite unless it is boiling.
Add the spice parcel and the bouquet garni, and return to the boil. Reduce the heat and leave to simmer for five minutes. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
Add this to the other pan containing the meat and vegetables, carefully combining the ingredients, and leave to marinate in a cool place for 24 hours.
It is important that the meat is completely covered by the marinade, so it might be necessary to add a little cold water.
Preheat the oven to 90C. On the top of the stove, place the casserole on high heat and bring the liquid to the boil, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pan to stop the contents burning. Skim off any impurities that rise to the surface, remove from the heat and lay a pierced piece of parchment paper on the surface of the liquid in the pan.
Place the pan in the oven for a minimum of seven hours, checking occasionally and topping up with water if the level of liquid has dropped too much. And I mean seven hours - this is the minimum time that should be set aside to cook the oxtail; longer will be even better.
Once cooked, remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool. When warm, carefully remove the pieces of oxtail with a slotted spoon and place them on a tray.
Return the pan to the heat for five to 10 minutes, and then pour into a smaller pan through a double layer of dampened muslin. Reduce this liquid to somewhere between 300ml and 400ml, then remove from the heat and leave to cool a little before putting back the meat.
Cook the sugar in a small pan on high heat until it caramelises - on no account let it burn, so watch it carefully - then add the red-wine vinegar, stir, reduce to a syrup and add this to the reduced cooking liquid with the oxtail. Stir carefully to combine, then leave to stand for five to 10 minutes before serving. You may need to reduce the liquid to a sauce consistency.
Pickled Daikon
This isn't a classic vegetable to go with braised oxtail, but it's texture is a terrific contrast to the oxtail, and brings a general freshness to the meat. Daikon is a type of radish especially popular in Japan, and you can buy it in Asian supermarkets and some national superstores.
1 tbsp fresh ginger, peeled and shredded
2 cloves garlic, crushed
half coffeespoon of chopped pickled ginger
2 limes, juiced
1 tbsp soy sauce
65ml sesame oil
100g daikon
Combine the ginger, garlic and pickled ginger in the lime, soy sauce and sesame oil, leave to marinade for 24 hours, then strain. Peel and finely slice the daikon, and add this to the marinade. Leave for another 24 hours before serving.
Parsnip purée
This vegetable accompaniment will finish off the whole dish nicely.
Simply blanch peeled parsnips in salted water, drain and refresh. Cook in very gently simmering milk until soft, then purée with some of the cooking milk. Pass through a fine-mesh sieve, beat in a little cold butter, season and serve.
· Heston Blumenthal is chef/proprietor of the Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire
Oh fuck off! 
