Cooking for a Stag party in Thrupp near Oxford

"I think we need to drink rather a lot tonight......" Oh you have to love stag parties don't you.


Main course - Grilled fillet of beef with oxtail, caramelised shallots and fondant potato
Fillet steak - perfect manfood. One of the party didn't do mushrooms though so they asked me to come up with something slightly different. I'd really wanted to try out an individual version of this dish (fillet of beef with oxtail wrapped in bacon), but some of the party apparently weren't too sure of the oxtail (till they'd eaten it that night anyway), so I served it on the side instead so the uninitiated could try it. They loved it - what a meatfest.

Oxtail was the first thing I blogged here 4 years ago when I was setting up the business and practising a few dishes. I always try and pick up oxtail when I see it at the local farm - you have to be quick around here it sells fast.
The other joy of cooking it is in the oxtail cooking liquor you have the most amazing base for your accompanying sauce. I also diced some of the carrots used in cooking the oxtail and added that to the sacue for the finished dish (I like making the most of ingredients - and they have so muich flavour).

After it had cooked in red wine for a good 6 hours I let it cool slightly before taking it off the bone. Then reboiled the bones for another stock, and the meat was cooked down a bit further (left) to serve with the fillet.

Unfortunately, as I found when I arrived, some guests couldn't make it away at the last minute due to work commitments, so I served their steaks and oxtail as seconds - I think they must have been saving up their appetites all week - all polished off.

This was their assiette of desserts as seen last week.








Related posts

Fondant potatoes
Oxtail
Their assiette of desserts