Oxtail

We would down from my expedition to Boston Manor (reference 1) with some oxtail, seeming the first since February (reference 2). Early start with the ingredients assembled in the snap above at around 06:45. Now sold by the tail, ready wrapped by the wholesaler who supplies the butcher at Manor Green Road: a wheeze which discourages customers from cherry-picking the big bits and leaving him with more or less unsaleable small bits.

Assembled a little more than five minutes later and into the oven, preheated to a modest 100°C, with the lid on, just before 07:00 with a view to eating around 17:00.

Back around 16:15, when I drained off the fat, turned the meat over and added some mushrooms - with the Costcutter up the road doing a handy packed of Heritage mushrooms for £1. At least I thought it was heritage but reference 2 suggests the the Co-op has moved on from what appears to have been a matter of branding rather than partnership with the vegetable wholesaler of this name operating out of Wiltshire.

Served up a little late, at about 17:30.

A little careless with the arranging of the snap, not least the stray strand of cabbage, but it serves to give the idea. Some left over celery plus some freshly boiled vegetables as a counterpoint to the meat, still fairly fatty despite the draining.

Done in on sitting, as was our last bottle of 'Mademoiselle' from Tracy-sur-Loire, now delisted by the people at Guildford.

Stewed cherries for dessert, as advertised at reference 4, with cinnamon, Delia Smith having suggested that this was the way forward. Not great, but eatable. So the lesson is beware of late, dark cherries - unless, that is, they come from M&S or Waitrose - who have proved reliable in these matters - so far.

Fat and left over liquid put aside for gravy for the Sunday roast to come. Bones now banned from the compost heap, so they went to the council digester. At least I hope that it is where they end up - and that the council had a stronger digester than my compost heap, which does not digest bones - apart from the smaller bones from chickens - at all.

PS 1: and while we are on animals, we have been wondering today why our fat leader and his good lady did not intervene when the men from the ministry arrived to lead the allegedly tubercular alpaca off to slaughter. They appear to have gone to some length to extract some stray cats and dogs from Afghanistan, so what have they got which alpacas have not? And furthermore, what about the hundreds of pigs which were being reared in the Afghan countryside to make bangers for our chaps out there? As unclean animals, that is to say quadrupeds who do not chew the cud - what have they got to look forward to? On which point, see reference 5.

PS 2: I might add that the whole stray cats episode must have made us look rather ridiculous in the eyes of most people in the rest of the western world. And not just all those people in the far reaches of the European Union who are a bit careless in their treatment of donkeys. Not to mention the Taliban.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/08/st-thomas-hanwell.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/02/more-oxtail.html.

Reference 3: https://www.betterretailing.com/news/nisa-to-axe-heritage-own-label-in-number-of-categories/.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/08/a-dud-kilo.html.

Reference 5: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/10/swine.html.