Onions, potatoes, carrots - comfort

"the heart-warming glow that comes from cooking cheap ingredients slowly." Nigel Slater

I'm determined to be better at emptying my freezer, so today I removed a couple of large forequarter chops from there and because it's a miserable kind of day - well the sun just came out - but it was, I fancied making something simple - simple is on my mind - and comforting. And so I thought of simple stew. I won't even follow a proper recipe, just throw it all in the pot and cook for ages in the oven. I won't even brown it off beforehand, which would, indeed probably - no possibly - give a richer taste - but it won't remind me of the stews of my youth.

I also decided to stick to the big British three - in the way of ingredients - onions, potatoes and carrots. Not exciting is it? And the end result is not that beautiful to look at either. But oh so tasty and oh so nostalgic of home, mum in the kitchen and British winters. At first I thought I might make Robert Carrier's Irish stew - a recipe he includes in his New Great dishes of the World in the Classics section. It's such a humble dish - his recipe does not even have carrots, the liquid is water and the herbs are dried mixed herbs. And yet it is delicious. I have made that particular recipe a few times because of that. This is the picture that accompanies it, but it's obviously a slightly fancier dish because there are carrots - and pearl barley too, neither of which are in his recipe. Odd.

So I must keep an eye on the clock because it will need to cook for at least a couple of hours.

The nostalgic mood might also have been exaggerated by reading this lovely book about ordinary people falling in love on a long walk across the north of England, in sunshine and rain. It's one of those funny/sad stories that the British in particular seem to be so good at. The French too sometimes - but then they are really the same people aren't they? Well we all are I suppose.

I do not know the countryside described here - the Lake District, the Pennines, the Yorkshire Moors, and yet I sort of do. I certainly relate to the weather changes, although Melbourne has a pretty good go at the weather thing. You laugh, you cry - well almost - and you hope that it all ends well.

A bit like cooking a plain stew with just meat, potatoes, onions and carrots. And maybe those dried mixed herbs. Maybe even dumplings.

And yet. These days we have become so accustomed to the vast variety of dishes around the world, that we have become somewhat defensive about the Irish stews, the Lancashire Hot Pots, the Oxtail stews, the Rabbit stews of our British youth. They are "generally regarded as something you feed the family, not your guests" as Irish chef Darina Allen says. So true - and I suspect I would still feel very diffident about feeding Irish Stew to guests. A sentiment that Felicity Cloake sums up, covering centuries of history in one paragraph in her How to Cook the Perfect Beef Stew piece

"Ever since humanity first began to upgrade its culinary skills from cremating mammoth steaks over an open fire, slow-cooking has been a vital part of the thrifty cook's repertoire, transforming chewy, hard-working cuts of meat into melting, flavourful tenderness. All you need is some liquid and a little patience. But while other countries celebrate such peasant cuisine, Britain has largely abandoned its own recipes in favour of daubes, bourguignons and osso bucco – a tendency not helped by the word "stew", with its gristly overtones of school dinners and slow-burning resentments. Stewing is an activity for disgraced politicians and lovestruck teenagers, not a precursor to dinner."

We don't even make them any more at home - if indeed we could get such things as oxtail, scrag end of neck lamb and rabbit. Some have become luxury food, some disappeared into pet food and fertiliser. So forequarter chops are the closest I can get to it.

Today we have been so exposed to foods from every corner of the globe, that we are always looking for something new and exciting. And so we start to add spices, and herbs, and garlic to our basic British stews. Garlic! We didn't know what garlic was. And I fear I also shall succumb because I shall be cooking my chops in red wine, because we have some leftover which is probably now too far-gone to drink. Never mind that we are told that if you cook with wine you should cook with the best available to you. Thrift has got the better of the purity of the British stew which was mostly cooked with water. Which is a bit of an odd statement I know, because wine is not as thrifty as water. Unless it's leftovers that will otherwise be thrown out. Maybe I'll water the wine down with water. I might add some dumplings too. Just because I love dumplings. Adding water would help with the dumplings. Otherwise there might not be enough liquid.

A stew is such a simple thing isn't it? Indeed I almost suggested a stew as my teens cooking experiment that I talked about yesterday. In the end I chose Nigel's Pasta with spicy sausage, basil and mustard because I know they like pasta - and sausages - it was a bit different from your average pasta, and because it seemed to be so uniformly praised on the internet.

I think of those three accompanying ingredients to the meat - potatoes, onions and carrots, as the basic foods of Britain. Possibly with the addition of cabbage - but I don't have any cabbage. Otherwise I might be tempted to put some in my stew. If Maeve O'Meara ever did a Food Safari on the food of Britain, they are possibly the ingredients that would be featured in the section on must have ingredients.

The British, it seems have a few more ideas on what to do with them, but not that many really. The traditional ones are basically variations on Irish Stew: Panhaggerty - The Hairy Bikers; Tater Ash - Family Feed and Carrot potato soup - The Clever Meal

None of them being inspiring to look at but which are probably pretty tasty and much loved in a homely British sort of way.

The non-traditionalist but still almost British in spirit - well perhaps not Phoebe Wood's Crispy carrot, sweet potato and halloumi baked rösti which is somewhat European - come from Nigel - I tried Jamie, and Nigella and Delia, but nothing there, so here are Nigel's two offerings: Kippers with potatoes and carrots and Carrot and potato bake with Fontina

I should also comment that these days there is a tendency to feature sweet potatoes over potatoes as well. It's classier sounding. More foreign.

Well it's almost 4 o'clock so I should go and start my fundamentally basic, but inauthentic stew. Not that there's a lot to do. Slice a few carrots and potates, and an onion. Layer them in a pot with some dried mixed herbs, salt and pepper with that very untraditional red wine poured over. Then I'm free to relax and do nothing, until the making of dumplings a little before dinner. If there is enough liquid by then in which to cook them.

"What I really like about this slow-motion cooking is the way so much of it comes into being with so little help from us. We may spend a little time putting these dishes together, but after that the food tends to get on with things for itself. The cook becomes virtually redundant." Nigel Slater

Yes I should have perhaps suggested a stew to the kids. It's not fast though is it? No instant result.

YEARS GONE BY

May 7

2024 - First recipe impact - is it why we buy?

2023 - A rainy day dish

2022 - Nothing

2021 - Is it me? - am I a boring cook?

2020 - Deleted

2019 - Nothing

2018 - Nothing

2017 - Why don't Asians do dairy foods?