Now is the winter of our content

"a carol to what makes the cooking of the cold months something to cherish." Nigel Slater

It has been very cold today - well 'very' is probably an overstatement for those who live in colder climes. Sufficiently cold for turning on the heating and wearing a warm jumper anyway. But the sky was blue and the air was crisp and so I went for an invigorating walk, partly to wake myself up - it takes me a long time in the morning - partly for the exercise factor and partly to get my brain working.

All of which it did. I even thought of the above title for this post, which is really a summary of this book which I bought recently and mentioned in one of my oddments pieces I think. It was on the Readings bargain tablealong with Gennaro's Verdure, and I just could not resist that stunning cover. I truly am a sucker for the beautiful or eye-catching book cover, and I do actually think the book cover sort of tells you the quality, or the motivation perhaps, of the content inside.

It's actually a reprint, no - a revised edition, complete with seven new recipes - I don't know which ones, a foreword from Nigel Slater and a new introduction by the author.

I was not disappointed. Diana Henry is an Irish/English food writer - she writes for the Daily Telegraph, which sadly means that you won't have online access to her recipes, unless others have made her recipes, because the Daily Telegraph is behind a pay wall. Like the New York Times. Anyway I had come across the odd recipe and also seen others praising her work, so it was an opportunity too good to miss. The cover illustration incidentally is by a man called Paul Wearing. Book covers matter enormously. I hope he got paid heaps for it.

It's a book about winter food. Hence my title and the fact that, although we are not quite into winter it is indeed pretty cold. No snow of course. We don't get that here - only in the higher hills and mountains - although Australia mountains, might be technically mountains, but are really just tall hills and don't look like any of the great mountain ranges of the world.

"Now is the winter of our discontent" - is, of course, the archetypal winter quote, and as a minor aside, here is Laurence Oliver as Richard III giving his all to Shakespeare's opening words to his play. You can watch a video of this speech if you are interested. Compelling but somewhat dated in style I guess. I was somewhat blown away by that film when it first came out.

Like Nigel, however, and Diana Henry as well, I am actually a bit of a fan of winter. Hence 'discontent' turning to 'content'. It might be cold, but you can always pile on more clothes, or snuggle under a doona. You can sit in front of a romantic fire, and try not to think of the damage you are doing to our planet whilst you do so and you can actually enjoy the warmth of the kitchen. In summer it's too hot - and even if you took all your clothes off you might still be very, very hot. Particularly here in Australia. Summer has its dangers here - bush fires and snakes to name just two. No I'm with Nigel when he says in his foreword:

"Winter was my secret. My love for the cold months, their pale skies and bare branches, mugs of hot chocolate and a fire in the hearth had always felt at odds with those around me. So many friends, cooks and writers talked passionately of long lunches at tables outdoors and seemed to worship a life of sun, sand and warm sea. I kept quiet about ... the happiness of coming in from the cold to a kitchen that smelled of baking potatoes and melted cheese, warm butter and oats, treacle and ginger."

But enough of Nigel. This is Diana Henry's book and it seems that she too loves winter:

"I like the way of life and of cooking that this weather engenders. Turning inwards can be a good thing and the kitchen is the very best retreat." ... The techniques employed in the kitchen fog the windows and seal you in and you find you want different foods. You can't argue with your body as it craves potatoes and pulses: the winter appetite is about survival." Diana Henry

It wasn't quite autumn even when I bought it, but summer was slipping away and I was beginning to look forward to winter food - potatoes, cabbage, soup, apple crumbles, roasts and stews. So it was a pleasure to read it - it's a cookbook that you can read - the best kind of cookbook. There are lengthy introductions to each section, and short ones to each recipe - and each section is focussed on a group of ingredients - 'of wood and smoke - smoked food'; 'the colour purple - plums, damsons and figs'; 'ripe and ready - cheese'; 'winter on your tongue - herbs, spices and soured cream' ... The food is the food of cold places - Britain, Scandinavia, Northern Italy and Europe and Georgia. The ingredients are the ingredients of winter, many of which we often overlook:

"Why do we despise winter vegetables, roots in particular? Maybe it's that unfortunate little quirk of human nature that makes us undervalue what is beneath our noses." Diana Henry

And scattered throughout the book are small pieces of writing from books and poems - many from the books of Laura Ingalls Wilder, and photographs too of wintry climes, and wintry things - much more wintry than what we would see here. No crystalline frost patterns on the windows here. Winter is a bit of a cheat here in some ways, but it does indeed bring a change in ingredients as we turn to winter fruits - apples, and all things citrus; and those vegetables too. Cauliflower is already making a comeback for example.

I haven't made anything from it as yet, but here are a few that look tempting - and there were others, but I could not find online versions, and so have omitted them. That soup at the top of the page is Onion and cider soup with melting Camembert - Delaware Online - and yes it's a variation on French onion soup. Another, more original soup is Beetroot and blackberry soup with walnut relish demonstrated on video and which she seems to have made into a chilled soup as well; West-country pot roast chicken with apples and cider - Genially; Roasted spare rib chops with pears, onions and melting gorgonzola - Connecticut Public; Stuffed quail with marmalade and whisky another video and this is slightly different from the version in the book which has garlic instead of the whisky; Danish Christmas kringle - Woolworths South Africa; and finally Pumpkin tarts with spinach and Gorgonzola Great British Chefs

The last coloured leaves are falling, glowing in the sunshine as they do, the temperature is also falling, and tonight I'm going to contrive something with leftover ham, cauliflower, and pastry - a galette perhaps - maybe a thick milky sauce, possibly zucchini, brussels, mushrooms. Not all of them of course, but some. Sort of wintry, but with a summery chilled wine, that might remind me of a warmer sun as well.

"For me, food is as much to do with the imagination as it is with flavour. A dish is more than a collection of ingredients. It comes from somewhere, contains tastes that make you think of the sun or snow, and may be a classic of home-cooking prepared every day in some corner of the world. In short, food comes with associations, with history, and it can take us places." Diana Henry

If you see this beautiful book somewhere, consider buying it.

YEARS GONE BY

March 18

2024 - Dithering over dinner

2023 - Saving the planet one mouthful at a time

2022 - My chicken - sauté, fricassée, blanquette or braised?

2021 - Do you know about okonomiyaki?

2020 - Deleted

2019 - A chocolate mousse mistake

2018 - Smoked salmon risotto - how many ways?

2017 - The breakfast buffet