This recipe has a lot of different versions in my kitchen, but I have found this one to be my most recent favourite. The pickled walnuts and a splash of their liquid makes the stew so interesting and delicious, then topped with fresh dill it combines a lot of my best-loved flavours. The beef just falls apart and melts into the sauce. It is great served with buttery new potatoes or mash, or throw in some butter beans and kale at the end. You can also use ox cheek instead of shin and tail, or as well as, if you like.
SERVES 6-8
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 20g butter
• 2 onions, peeled and sliced
• 800g beef shin, diced
• 1kg oxtail, cut into rounds by the butcher
• salt and pepper
• 1 pear, halved, peeled, cored and roughly chopped (see Notes)
• 2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
• 1 sprig of thyme or savory
• 1 handful of capers
• 5 pickled walnuts, chopped
• 6 tbsp walnut pickling liquid
• 300ml dark beer
• 500ml chicken stock
• chopped dill, for topping
EQUIPMENT
• large oven tray, about 6cm deep
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4. Heat the oil and butter in a heavy-based pan, add the onions and cook for 10 minutes over a medium heat, or until soft and golden.
Place the meat in the large oven tray and season it generously with salt and pepper. Add the pear, skin, stalk and core included. Add the carrots, garlic and thyme, then add the cooked onions and mix everything together.
Add the capers, pickled walnuts and pickling liquid, then pour in the dark beer and chicken stock to almost cover everything. Top up with water if needs be. Be careful not to fill the tray too full of liquid as you need to move it in and out of the oven.
Cover the tray tightly with foil and put it in the oven for 3 hours. Check it halfway through, turning the meat and making sure it still full of liquid.
Serve topped with dill and new potatoes covered in butter.
NOTES
Don’t throw the pear stalk, skin or core away as it is all added to the meat.