Well Ok, we nearly finished pescetarian January with integrity intact but I couldn’t resist this once I got the idea. To be fair though I think we both agreed, that meat free meals will feature a lot more in our week. If anything, it will save us some money. In the UK meat, or rather, good quality meat is becoming increasingly expensive. I avoid the cheapest supermarket alternatives wherever possible as I’ve seen the factory-like breeding and processing that goes on and it doesn’t sit well with me personally. So the answer? Buy better, buy locally and eat less of it I say.

But anyway, I’ll step off this soapbox and moral high-horse (burger) and get on with it.

Over Christmas I made some miniature oxtail pasties as a kind of canapé when everyone came over. As tends to happen in the Food Frankly household, I made waaay too much and froze most of the filling for a rainy day. Digging through the freezer today I came across it and immediately the cogs started spinning….

In fact, everything else in this dish was found rummaging in the fridge and I allowed myself to feel a little smug about that. Considering the amount we spent on “restaurant week” though it’s largely misplaced, but small victories eh?

Quite a lot went into this, so I won’t write it all down here, I think I might try and post the individual elements in their own right over this coming week. It actually tasted great, I was pleased with this dish. It had just the right combination of flavour and texture and the oxtail, if anything, had improved in flavour. The presentation wasn’t the best but it’s not my strength to be honest and I’m working on it!

Basically though oxtail had been roasted, then braised in stock for a few hours. I picked the meat out and blended it it with a little stock and Worcestershire sauce to make the pasty filling. I froze the excess and I simply defrosted what was left and cooked it using cooking rings to keep the shape in a hot pan, finishing them off in the oven.

I did virtually the same for the rosti to cut down of the oil used and it also worked out pretty well: