Oxtail, shin & oyster pie with beer and borage
Dredge the beef and oxtail in the flour, then season with salt and pepper.
In a cast-iron pot, heat a drizzle of oil over medium-high heat and brown the beef and oxtail.
When they’re nice and brown all over, remove from the pot and add the carrot, leek, shallots, celery, garlic and thyme, plus a little more oil and a pinch of salt.
When everything is nicely softened, return the meat to the pot, along with the ale, Worcestershire sauce and stock. Stir well, then pop a lid on and simmer for
2–3 hours, until the meat is just starting to pull away from the oxtail bone – do not overcook it, or the meat will be dry.
Remove the pie filling from the heat and leave to cool slightly, then chill in the fridge for at least an hour. It’s very important that everything is cold before you assemble the pie, otherwise the pastry will immediately sink and not cook properly.
Preheat the oven to 190C and get six individual pie dishes ready.
Now it’s time to build the pies: cut the oysters in half and stir into the pie filling, along with the borage leaves and a decent amount of salt and pepper.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the chilled pastry. You want it quite thick, bearing in mind it will rise to almost double its size in the oven – approximately 5mm.
Cut out circles big enough to fit over the pie dishes with an overhang of about 3cm all around.
Brush some egg wash around the edge of the pastry to create a seal, then lay over the pies, egg-wash side down, pressing all around the rim of the dish with your fingers to seal. Generously egg wash the tops of the pies before pressing a cleaned oyster shell into the top of each one.
Bake for 20 minutes, or until the pastry is golden, then serve with some purple sprouting broccoli – and a glass of beer!
Put a saucepan over high heat until extremely hot. Throw in all the seafood and the white wine and bring to a frantic boil, then lower the heat slightly, cover with a lid and simmer for 3–4 minutes. Remove the lid, take the seafood out with a slotted spoon and put into a bowl. Keep the cooking liquor over low heat and add the cream, mustard and bay leaves and simmer for a few minutes. Reserve for later. Pick the meat from the shellfish and put all the prepared seafood in the fridge.
Melt the butter in a deep saucepan over medium heat, then add the shallots and fennel with a pinch of salt and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often, until softened. Add the flour whilst still stirring and cook for a further 5 minutes. Now gradually ladle in the reserved cream mixture and stir until thick. Season well with salt and pepper and pick out the bay leaves. Leave to cool in a bowl in the fridge, with clingfilm pressed onto the surface of the sauce, for two hours until cool.
For the mash topping, boil the potatoes until you can easily stick a knife through them, then drain in a colander and give them a few minutes back in the pan over low heat to steam dry. Pass them through a ricer, moulis or just bash with a masher until smooth. Heat the butter and cream in a small pan over low heat until piping hot, then stir into the mash with the egg yolks and season well with salt and pepper. If you want to pipe it onto the pie, use a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle.
For the breadcrumb topping, blend the ingredients together with a good pinch of salt and a turn of white pepper until the colour of the herbs comes through.
Preheat the oven to 170C.
Add all the seafood to the cooled sauce with the chopped eggs and lemon juice and zest, and mix well. Spoon into a large pie dish, pipe or spoon over the mash, then scatter with the green breadcrumbs. Bake for 30 minutes until the crumbs start to get crispy! Serve with buttered samphire.
Giffords Circus Cookbook by Nell Gifford and Ols Halas (Quadrille,
£27) Photography: David Loftus