Oxtail with vegetables and Pretzel Gnocchi

Once again I cook from the German cookbook of Hannelore Kohl.
Today I invited friends who love to cook and we will prepare the  recipe together.
We have met over many years once a month to serve a Sunday dinner to the others. That was a nice way to enjoy food and adventures with others.

Oxtail with Pretzel Gnocchi

Oxtail is a dish that needs time to prepare, because simmering it to break down the meat for a long time is necessary. But you only get the full flavour of that dish, when it has braised in wine and broth for long.

recipe:
2 kg Oxtail
50 g Ghee or butterfat
850 g mixed veggies like carrots, celery, swedes, leek, cabbage, parsley
2 large onions
5 cloves of garlic
1 l red wine
400 ml broth ( I used my rabbit broth frome the recipe the day before)
3 tbsp tomato paste
4 tbsp flour
3 tbsp creme fraiche
2 tbsp thyme
salt and pepper
2 tsp potato starch with water

seasoned and floured meat

Season the oxtail and season the flour, coat the oxtail lightly with flour and in the hot butterfat start to brown it on all sides. That will take more then 10  minutes. Chop all the veggies and when the meat is brown start with adding the onions and garlic, after 2 minutes all the other veg. Add broth and the whole bottle of red wine - don´t take a swig, you need it for the oxtail! Bring to a boil and cover reduce the heat and cook for 1 hour, open the lid and cook for 1 hour more reducing the liquid.  Use the potato starch to thicken the sauce a bit more. Add the tomato paste and at last the creme fraiche.

In the cookbook they were served with pasta, but for Valentine`s Day the extra mile so....

Serve with the Pretzel Gnocchi
recipe:
3 Pretzels for the day before cut in very fine pieces
4 tbsp hot milk   let that rest for 15 minutes
Preheat oven 170 C

Pretzels soaking in a little milk

200 ml water
75 g butter
50 g grated pecorino
heat butter and water together until the butter is nearly melted, add the pecorino and melt that too.

Dump in
125 g flour and make a choux dough by stirring it on the heat until it comes away from the sides and gets glossy

Take it off the heat and add
3 eggs   combining one at the time and stirring permanently
add the pretzel pieces salt and pepper and some dried parsley.

it is a bit fiddely

Roll with your hands 2 cm sausages from the dough and with some flour on a board shape them into Gnocchi. Take a fork and make a line in the top. Set them on  a baking sheet with baking paper and bake them for 20 minutes, check if they are firm on the ourside but tender on the inside.

makes to baking sheets

Let them get cool a bit, the flavour gets more intense, when they are not hot. They are great with the sauce and the veggies.

You can even have the left over ones as croutons in a soup.