Ox-tail stew - with and without chocolate

First catch your ox....

...or else bob down to a good butcher and buy an oxtail (get that butcher to chop it up and remove any obvious lumps of fat).

To complete the stew you'll need:

Couple of onions
A leek
Teaspoonful each of Cumin, black onion seeds & caraway seeds
Salt
Bottle of white wine
2 cans of tomatoes
Some kind of fat or oil

(I'll get to the chocolate bit later)

Heat the oil or fat in a heavy casserole dish and sear the pieces of oxtail. Add the chopped onions and leeks plus the spices and salt. Cook for a few minutes until soft then cover with the white wine (you'll need the whole bottle I'm afraid). Bring to the boil and then turn down to a low heat and simmer uncovered until the wine has almost boiled away.

Add the tomatoes, bring back to the boil, cover and then transfer to a warm oven (c150 degrees). Cook for ages and ages (today's stew had 5 hours). Remove from the oven - I usually boil away some of the sauce to make it thicker and gloopier. Serve with big chunks of wholemeal bread, jacket spuds or mash.

The chocolate bit: for an interesting tweak stir in half a teaspoonful of cocoa powder before putting it in the over for the marathon 5 hour session. Don't be tempted to put more in as that small amount will give a great chocolaty aftertaste to the stew - any more and it'll be like dropping a bar of CDM in just chocolate and no stew!