Oxtail in chocolate sauce

Ingredients for 6 servings:

• 2 kg oxtail, cut into approx. 2 cm thick slices
• 200 g bacon, streaky
• 125 g onion(s)
• 2 garlic cloves
• 5 tbsp olive oil
• 5 cloves
• ¼ liter white wine, dry
• 300 g tomatoes, chunky, freshly peeled or from the can
• 1 bar of chocolate, very very good, dark bitter
• 500 g celery
• 50 g butter
• 50 g pine nuts
• Salt and pepper from the mill

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 4 hours 30 minutes; Total time approx. 5 hours

Rabo de Buey and Salsa de Chocolate

This recipe has followed me my entire life as a handwritten note, copied and copied many times, passed from mother to daughter – and it’s always delicious. A feast! Everyone will lick their fingers after the sauce, and it doesn’t taste chocolatey, I promise! Trim any coarse fat from the oxtail, wash the oxtail, and pat it dry. Dice the bacon, skinned onions, and peeled garlic. Heat the oil in a large ovenproof casserole dish on the stovetop and fry the bacon. Brown the oxtail all over, add the onions, garlic, and cloves, and season with salt and pepper. Deglaze with white wine and simmer, covered, for about 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, add the chopped tomatoes, then simmer everything for an hour. You can take a break here if you want to prepare the meat a day in advance, for example. Simply refrigerate the roasting pan until the next step. Now just cover the meat with water, cover, and place it in the oven at 150°C (top and bottom heat) for a good four hours. The meat won’t mind if it’s a few minutes longer or shorter, so it’s perfect for guests. Half an hour before the end of the cooking time, roughly chop the chocolate. Trim the celery and cut it into finger-thick pieces. Wash it, cover it, and sauté it in the butter while dripping wet over medium heat for about 15 minutes. Remove the roasting pan from the oven. Pour about 1/4 liter of the oxtail stock (I usually use two ladles from the roasting pan) over the celery, melt the chocolate, and add the pine nuts. These don’t need to be toasted, by the way. Then add the chocolate sauce to the oxtail in the roasting pan and let it simmer for 5-7 minutes over low heat. This is your second break, if you need one. If you want to remove the bones now, you can do so and gently reheat everything later. We always place the roasting pan as it is in the middle of the table, and everyone takes what they like. If you want something a little more sophisticated, you can, of course, first remove the bones and shred the meat, then serve it with something like homemade tagliatelle. It also works well with just baguette or ciabatta.