Sear the oxtail meat well by browning it on all sides in a medium saucepan on medium-high heat. Brown in batches, depending on the size of your saucepan. This creates beautiful color and renders out some of the fat - discard the fat or keep it in the fridge for a future dish but use within a week. Do not add any additional oil when browning the meat as oxtail is already quite fatty (usually). Set aside.

Add the olive oil, garlic, chilies, cinnamon, paprika, star anise, cumin, and thyme in a pressure cooker or Instant Pot and cook for 3mins uncovered. Add the carrots, celery, green pepper, and onion to the pot and cook for another 10mins uncovered, and cook until softened. Add the tomato paste and sugar and cook for another 10mins uncovered.

Add the browned oxtail (and any residual juice from the meat), diced tomatoes, stock cube, red wine, and 1,2 liters of water to the pot and mix well. Cover the pressure cooker and cook for at least 3 1/2 hours or until the meat is tender and almost falls off the bone. Remember to stir every 20-30 minutes and add additional water towards the end of the cooking process because you do not want the oxtail to burn as the sauce becomes thicker and thicker.

In the last 30mins of cooking time, you may prepare your starch for the meal, whether this is mash, rice, couscous, etc. Also, once the stew is done, I take a paper towel and remove most of the unwanted oil lying on the surface of the stew.Regarding the starch, I decided on making some parmesan mash with ours and drizzled over some of my homemade basil pesto!