The benefits of preparing meat slowly A good stew needs time to cook, so set a few relaxed hours aside. I love the feeling that once the ingredients are together in the pot, your dinner is taking care of itself. Put your feet up with a good book while it's slowly transforming into something deliciously sustaining. The recipes Oxtail cooked in brandy with horseradish gremolata and Swiss chard, serves 4 If you don't have fresh horseradish, add the zest of two unwaxed lemons to the parsley for a classic gremolata. 100g plain flour 1.5kg of oxtail, jointed 200ml brandy 4 carrots, diced 2 onions, diced ½ head of celery, diced A few sprigs of thyme A couple of bay leaves 2 tomatoes, quartered 1 tsp whole peppercorns ¼ nutmeg crushed/grated ½ cinnamon stick 350g Swiss chard For the gremolata ½ a small bunch of parsley ½ a clove of garlic 50g of fresh horseradish Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. In a tray or large plate, dust the flour in an even layer and sprinkle generously with salt. Roll the pieces of oxtail in the mixture. Heat a large frying pan and add the olive oil, then fry the meat over a high heat, turning the pieces frequently until they are nicely browned all over. Remove the meat to a casserole. Pour off and discard any excess fat from the pan and scrape the tasty brown bits from the side and bottom of the pan. Add the brandy, stirring in the brown bits. Pour it all into the casserole. Add the vegetables, herbs and tomatoes to the casserole and season again with salt. Add the peppercorns, nutmeg and cinnamon stick. Pour water into the casserole until the ingredients are just covered by liquid. Put on the lid and place in the oven for four hours. Boil a large pan of water. Wash the chard well and then, using a small sharp knife, remove the white stems and finely slice them. Add the stems to the boiling water and cook for a few minutes. Once they have started to soften, add the leaves. Cook for another couple of minutes then drain well, dress with olive oil and salt and pepper. Finely chop the parsley (discarding the stalks). Finely chop the garlic and add to the parsley, then peel and finely grate over the piece of horseradish. Serve the oxtail pieces in a bowl with some of the vegetables and juice and a little of the chard, warmed up, and sprinkle with the gremolata. Rabbit in red wine and pancetta with soft polenta, serves 4 Slow-cook polenta is better than fast-cook. Try to buy a coarse one. It takes an hour or two to cook but has a much better flavour. 2 small wild rabbits, jointed, or 1 farmed 150g pancetta, cut into lardons 1 onion, diced 1 celery stick, diced 6 cloves of garlic, chopped 10 sage leaves 6 sprigs of thyme 2 tomatoes 1 small hot dried chilli 1 bottle red wine 200g of polenta 30g butter 30g Parmesan ¼ nutmeg, grated In a casserole dish fry the pieces of rabbit a couple at a time in the olive oil, browning them gently all over. Remove from the pan and add the pancetta, onion, celery, garlic, sage leaves (don't chop them) and thyme. Cook for about 10 minutes over a medium heat. Add the tomatoes, juniper berries, lightly crushed with the back of a knife, cinnamon and the chilli. Cook for a few more minutes, then add the rabbit back to the pan. Pour over the red wine, turn the heat down to its lowest setting and cover with the lid. Cook for an hour and a half to two hours (rabbits, particularly wild ones, can really vary in cooking time). When you can pull the meat from the bones, it is ready. Remove the saddles and the larger legs from the stew, put them on a plate, cool a little then pull the meat from the bone, before returning them to the stew. Cook the polenta according to the instructions. When the polenta is cooked, stir in the butter, Parmesan and nutmeg. Serve the polenta topped with the rabbit stew. Lamb in cumin with fried potatoes and harissa, serves 4 This is a simplified version of a tangia, a meat stew cooked in the embers of the communal ovens in Marrakesh. In the winter, I make this harissa (hot chili sauce) with peppers from a jar. If you can't find piquillo (the small sweet Spanish ones), normal jarred peppers will be fine. Leave the seeds in the chillies if you like it hot. 4 mutton/lamb shanks, bones cut short as possible 5 tsp cumin 1 head of garlic ¼ tsp turmeric ¼ tsp chilli powder 1 tbsp honey 1 small bunch of coriander 400g large waxy potatoes (I use roseval) For the harissa 3 cloves of garlic 300g fresh mild red chillies, split in half, seeds removed 50g piquillo peppers from a jar ½ tsp caraway seeds 1 tsp sweet paprika 50ml olive oil 1 tbsp sherry vinegar 1 litre frying oil Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/ Gas 2. Place the lamb shanks in a casserole dish. Over a low heat, heat the cumin gently in a small frying pan. When it is hot and has started to brown, remove it to a pestle and mortar, coarsely grind and then add to the lamb. Break up the garlic bulb into cloves, but don't bother peeling them, and add to the lamb. Sprinkle over the turmeric and chilli and drizzle over the honey. Add about half the coriander. Season well and drizzle with a little olive oil. Add water to about ¾ the level of the meat. Set over a medium-high heat and bring to the boil, then cover with the lid and put in the oven for five hours. Check after three hours or so to see if there is enough liquid (if it runs out, it will burn). Just add a little more if it is looking dry. When the lamb is nearly ready, peel and cut the potatoes into rough shapes about 5cm long. Boil them in well-salted water until just cooked, then drain and set aside. To make the harissa, crush the cloves of garlic with a little salt in a pestle and mortar. Put the chillies in a Magimix with the garlic and piquillo peppers. Add the spices, olive oil and vinegar, season with salt and taste. If it's not hot enough add more peppers from the jar, though it should be quite hot. Heat the oil in a large pan and fry the boiled potatoes in batches until deep golden brown. Serve the lamb torn off the bone with a little of the juice and some fried potatoes and a good blob of harissa, and scatter with the remaining coriander leaves.