BH took on the cooking of yesterday's oxtail, with water, onion and carrot being the only ingredients apart from the tail. Simmered for about two hours, left in the cooling water. Maybe two tablespoons of fat taken off in the morning. Reheated, a very thin stock but a very satisfactory stew, with the oxtail itself spot on. Served with boiled potatoes and boiled cabbage.
I then take over to make soup out of what was left of the stock, maybe a litre of the stuff. Pass it and a sprinkling of carrot and onion, plus three or four modest chunks of potato through the blender and was surprised at how thick the product was. Does the fat still in the stock combine with the starch in the potato in some complicated way? About an hour and a half before consumption added 3 ounces of pearl barley and put on a very low heat. Brought to the boil around three quarters of an hour before consumption and simmered for the remainder of the time. Soup now surprisingly thick given the watery start and the modest additions. Very good it was too. Taken with own brown bread in my own case, while BH took hers with Vogel's soya and linseed, ready made and ready sliced.
But be warned: oxtail is not cheap. The oxtail for two meals and two snacks weighed in at around £8.50, the price of two fish suppers at the Pound Lane chipper.
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