Jottage from Lancaster - Shin of Beef with Ginger and Soy (1)

It's one of those days - and they happen all too frequently - when I just can't think of anything to eat tonight. Added to which, I don't feel much like cooking. So I opened the freezer and stared at it for a while wondering whether to throw away that Elderflower Sorbet that must be 2 (or is it 3?) years old now. But I can't bear to throw away food so it will just stay there a bit longer until I can stand it no longer and I will just shut my eyes and drop it into the bin. 
I didn't have much that inspired me to make anything. Maybe that single piece of salmon would make a fishcake, maybe that lamb mince would make up a moussaka (although it would have to be aubergine-less), but what, what could be in those anonymous white plastic bags??? They were definitely something I bought from the butcher but I couldn't for the life of me recall what I had bought and what might be in them. Some frosty poking about made me think that in one was sausages - but there seemed to be too many of them and they would come in next week when the family were all here for Christmas. 
One bag seemed to have something in that I just couldn't identify. In the end I poked a hole in it to have a look and it was a nice bit of braising steak. Goodness knows when I had bought that. Having made a hole I then worried that it might not be a good idea to leave it in the freezer. Then I remembered Hugh's recipe for Shin of Beef with Ginger and Soy. Nice braising steak is hardly shin of beef, but it would do...it would do.
I left my frozen braising steak in the sun in the window, but in the end, I threw it into the frying pan to defrost and brown off all in one seamless process. It was then I realised that I needed 150ml of soy sauce. That was over a bottle full! It sounded a bit too generous, so I cut that down. And I didn't have any apple juice so I just used stock made with powder. I had some garlic and some fresh ginger so at least some of the ingredients were spot on.
Then I threw the lot into the slow cooked along with a carrot which was in the fridge and seemed to need eating - maybe that would make up for the lack of apple juice. I gingerly tasted the juices in the cooker and amazingly enough - it seems to taste totally gorgeous. Give it another couple of hours and we will see....