120: Braised oxtail with mustard and mash, p63

A little visceral, this one...  Hunting down an oxtail, I found one rather quickly in Waitrose, who apparently have a range of 'forgotten cuts' - well done them! A bargain too, under a couple of quid for a whole oxtail. People seem to be incredibly squeamish about the idea though - the number of 'eughs!' and 'yuck, really??' responses I got when I mentioned I was making this, you'd have thought I was cooking a rat. Stupidly anticipating an oxtail to be long thick lump of meat, at the meat counter I was momentarily taken aback by the fact that the 'oxtail' sign was sitting on a little pile of neat, medallion-like rounds, before realising that they were all different sizes, about 1/2 inch through to 3 inches in diameter - and are of course each of the vertebrae of the tail, already chopped apart and ready to cook... doh!

An easy stew to throw together, and with the addition of a whole bottle of wine (no stock!) and the mustards, really meaty and rich and scrummy. After 2 1/2 hours, the meat was falling off the bones, and the next day, as per the recipe, I finished it off and served it with creamy mashed potato. The meat was lovely, but a little thin on the ground, and a little slimy still for T's liking, so maybe a bit longer in the oven to reduce the collagen down a bit more might have been a good idea.

111: A really good spaghetti Bolognese, p21

Service resumed after a particularly busy week or so of conferencing and camping, and a lack of proper home cooking!

And a nice easy comfort food dish to ease us back in, and use up some of the contents of the overflowing fridge (post-Tescos delivery... how do I always overestimate the amount of fridge/freezer storage space we've got and have to cram it all in and/or use lots up within a couple of days of delivery??).

Almost the same as my usual basic plus throw-in-whatever-I-think-of-off-the top-of-my-head spag bol, but for one crucial difference - the addition of a large amount of cream near the end... The result was very different to usual! I'm not entirely sure it was for the good... Very tasty (cream tends to have that effect), but not quite spag bol to me - which should be really meaty and tomatoey and rich and strong, with the addition of lots of red wine, beef stock cubes, worcestershire sauce, etc. T liked it a lot (possibly more than mine??!!) but although it was nice, it tasted more like the contents of a lasagna to me - with the bechamel mixed up with the mince. An interesting experiment though, and as ever good to try different ideas... :)

19: Lamb shanks with mustard and mash, p44

Hmm, a mixed reaction to this one... I've never cooked lamb shanks, and I don't think I've actually had them in a restaurant either. The meat was amazingly tender and fell away from the bone after just an hour and a half in a low oven, and was beautiful, but there was still a bit too much connective tissue - meltingly soft but slightly slimy as T put it.

Smelt amazing whilst it was cooking away in the oven, and the juices were meaty and red winey but I think I'd prefer to thicken them up a bit. And although you need lots of liquid to slowly braise the meat in, because there's only two lamb shanks (yes - it's for two people!), there's about a pint of liquid left, which I guess I'll freeze to use in a gravy at some point.

I would probably also put in a good dollop of cranberry sauce or similar to add a fruity sharpness to cut through the soft, gelatinous tastes if I did this again. But not a disaster at all - nice warming, filling Winter food!