 |
| JML |
For the year between my undergraduate and post graduate studies I worked in a large bookshop in Cape Town. I can't recall what my job entailed but I do remember the books - oh my word, I feasted on books that year and just read and read and read. We also got a handsome staff discount which kicked off my cook book collection.
This was 1984 and the height of the Nouvelle Cuisine revolution. Naturally I got the Troisgrois Brothers book but it was so dull and pompous that I never cooked a single thing out of it. This couldn't be said for Jacques Pepin's 'Everyday French Cookery' which was more my level and which I cooked my way through along with Elizabeth David (which I already had).
I honestly cannot remember a single South African cookbook apart from the renowned and ubiquitous 'Koek 'n Geniet' found in English or Afrikaans in every South African kitchen.
The mid-Eighties saw the beginning of the revival of English cooking. The Roux Scholarship had just started in 1984, Bibendum on the Fulham Road was acquired in 1985 and Sophie Grigson had just started writing. Alistair Little was at 192 Notting Hill, Antony Worral Thompson was at Princess Di's fave Menage-a Trois and the 'New Modern British' chefs such as Marco Pierre White and Simon Hopkinson were just starting out. By the time I got to London in January 1989 the 'revival' was in full fling and we ate at all these places plus more.
Against this background, without a shadow of a doubt the book that taught me the most about food and cooking was Arabella Boxer's 'The Sunday Times Complete Cook Book'. My very first cookbook was her ingenious 'First Slice your Cookbook' which I used slavishly for student dinner parties and still use for retro classics such as Belguim Waterzooi, but it was the 1983 published 'Sunday Times Cookbook' that I used all the time. It introduced me to cooks such as Antonia Carluccio, Claudio Roden and Patricia Lousada - all of whom I still like and use today and deeply influenced me.
I've recently become re-acquainted with Arabella's book and have been nostalgically paging through these past few days finding long forgotten recipes which feel like seeing old friends again.
 |
| The cook book that has most influenced me |
We had a hearty steak pie a few nights ago made with the most sensational beef shin from Greenfield's Butchery that had me back in the butchery the very next day. Arabella's Beef Casserole immediately sprang to mind for the encore and I happily got out its wine-stained pages and did the shin some justice. The clever twist is the orange.
Comfort Food in every sense.
Arabella Boxer's 1984 Beef Casserole
1 kg chuck or shin beef, cubed into 2cm squares
1 large onion, medium-size dice
2 large carrots, match-sticked
1 turnip, cubed into 1 cm
1 parsnip (or 2 if you don't like turnips!) match-sticked
3 stalks celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
100 g all purpose flour
200 ml red wine
450ml beef stock
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 large orange, large peel strip and juice
3 good shakes of tabasco or chili oil
1 handful chopped parsley
Method:
- Fry off the onion, celery until transparent
- Add carrots and root veg and fry for another 5 minutes. Remove and set apart
- Brown meat on both sides
- Sprinkle flour over the meat, stir and then add back vegetables
- Add stock, tomato paste and wine and bubble for a few minutes
- Add orange juice, orange peel and chilli/Tabasco
- Cook in a 180 C oven for an hour with lid on.
- Take out of oven after an hour and stir. Take off lid.
- Cook for a further hour to caramelise vegetables and until meat is soft
- Serve with chopped up parsley and some baked potatoes.
No comments
Post a Comment