Dear Julia
I am outraged. Your recipe for oxtail stew suggests a cupful of red wine. That is disgusting. You are doing nothing other than encouraging drunken alcoholism. I left the wine out before taking up your suggestion of cooking the oxtail slowly for five hours! Five hours! The meat cooked quickly. It had gone brown which surely is a sign that something’s cooked. I took it off the stove after thirty minutes.
As for the celery, I left that out too. My family are not rabbits. Also the carrots. And the potatoes got the heave-ho; they’re so unimaginative. You’d think being a popular chef on television and elsewhere that you could find something more imaginative than potatoes.
A pinch of salt! Drag yourself at least into the nineteenth century. Haven’t you heard of hardening of the arteries? I left the salt out too. And those other disgusting herbs that you wanted put in, like a bay leaf and some rosemary. Dead foliage I call them.
In conclusion I would like to say that I thought the end product was rather bland. I do wish you’d stop foistering your mediocre recipes on the gullible public. My three sons demanded proper food, so I had to open a couple of cans of baked beans.
Signed: A Proper Cook
To listen to the story being read click HERE!
Is there a vegetarian option?
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Yes – just leave out the meat along with the rest!
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Puts me in mind of a friend who was wont to say, “If we had some bread we could have cheese on toast, if we had some cheese.”
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😀
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I’d call that a real beef
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Shanks very much, Derrick.
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Alas, you just reminded me of my mother!
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Now Pauline, if you don’t eat your meat you won’t get any pudding.
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Here is what I suggest, return all the veges. Add garlic and onion sauted in a bit of butter and bay leaf and thyme and any other spice you have growing. Add two cups of wine, 1/2 a bottle, maybe 2T’s of brandy, hmmmmmm what else you got to add
in???? I love Julia’s Beef Bourginon and use a whole bottle of burgundy and a touch of brandy or cognac. When am I coming for dinner?????
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LOL Cindy! I have just had an entire cattle beast put in the freezer so you’re welcome any time. You bring the brandy and the burgundy because mine seems to disappear while waiting for the meat to defrost!
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Oh, a cook after mine own heart.
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Bring an Italian Red to the cooking party!
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What makes you think Yvonne chums with Communists over there in Venice?
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LOL! I wouldn’t put anything past Yvonne. There’s all sorts of things happening in those canals.
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Have you been watching the webcams again, Bruce?
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Note to self: do not read the comments on this blog when mouth is full of muesli.
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We are not amueslied.
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Stop it, I’ll soon have tears running down my legs!
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“Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.” —Benjamin Franklin
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Benjamin Franklin had obviously had “one for the road”!!!
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That was the night he invented bifocals….
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He saw two pink elephants?
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Yes, one very near, and one far, far away.
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Was he flying a kite at the time?
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Actually he was higher than a kite.
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Sounds electrifying!
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Hahahahshahahsjahahaj
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“Hahahahshahahsjahahaj” looks like some sort of Moroccan sauce.
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It’s good sauce. Not as good as jahahahahahsjajajhahahsah, but still, good.
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Sounds a bit too hot for me!
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Mighty fine stew sir. Pass the serviette!
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Well! Howdy!
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sometimes baked beans are the only options, it seems
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Baked beans (in a tin) is hardly the apex of French cooking, but it’ll do at times!
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Very efficient !
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It’s an efficiency I frequently fall into!
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O Bruce! my first visit, looks like fun, and recipes too!!
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Welcome! and at last it looks like the weather may be dragging you away from the garden!
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I understand water stew is very good provided you filter it first. Or just drink the wine. Some drink to remember some drink to forget. I’ve no idea which category I fell into.
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If you fell into something at all, it’s because you drink to …er…
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Excess?
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LOL!!
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That was hilarious. I loved the pitiless removal of almost every ingredient ending with a complaint about whatever was left in the pan. Quite brilliant really. Well done you 🙂
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Thank you Peter – and from the master of many styles!
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This was so funny – the tale of a really lazy and know it all cook (sounds like a few people I know, luckily not in my immediate family). His life is clearly bland, too!
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He needs stirring up!
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Reblogged this on Scotties Toy Box and commented:
Ron and I laughed about this one, as we sadly know people who do this and act this way. Thanks and hugs
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Thanks for the reblog and the enjoyment!
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Thank you for a wonderful blog. Hugs
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