Osso Buco Sunday Lunch

Sunday lunch is a family affair and is always at least 3 courses, if not more. We start cooking early afternoon and sit to eat at around 4pm - Mexican lunchtime! Appetizer - fresh sea urchin! I'm not a fan myself - too fishy - but others enjoyed it. Starter was a carrot, coriander and ginger soup that I made the day before and freshened up with fresh ginger and cream this afternoon. Main course was the most delicious veal osso buco and polenta, topped with a gremolada. Following were some cheeses and then finally pudding (lemon tart and hazlenut brown butter cake). Some added rum to the HBB cake, which I am told made it even better. G was the chef of the day, I did the pudding and polenta - the star of the meal was by far G's osso buco! For the osso buco, G made a great seasoning "packet" - a giant spring onion (!) from which he took the green leaf part and filled it with herbs, then tied it with some twine. It did the job and looked pretty too. The polenta wasn't so good - pretty tastless unfortunately, but surprisingly simple to make - if you don't mind the 15 minutes of constant whisking to prevent lumps. It is made in the way of a roux sauce - cornmeal, milk, salt, oil. The osso buco was slow cooked for just over 3 hours and the meat literally fell off the bone - perfect.