Root vegetable bake based on the Woolton Pie…

Exactly as with the Woolton Pie, the initial decision as to whether you are going with a potato topping or a pie crust also determines the contents of the pie. Potatoes are the main focus of the decision making process as they will feature somewhere either mashed on the top or sliced in the filling. I like the idea of this being an actual pie (albeit a single crust so not really a proper pie) so I’m going with the pastry. The next decision is the vegetable content. The original mentions using the vegetables that are seasonal (if available) at the time, which we must do also. I’m making this in January so I’m going with potato, red onions (I was going to use leeks and wonder if I should?!? Argh, too late now – I didn’t buy any…but they are in season and very nutritious), swede, celeriac and carrot. Parsnip could be included (maybe instead of the celeriac?) but I’ve gone off them so I’m rejecting them. Parsnips, however, are an excellent source of fibre (maintains healthy bowels), folate (helps regenerate the body, make blood cells, fights against birth defects), vitamin K (builds strong bones, helps cells grow and live, helps blood clot), and potassium (regulates blood pressure and keeps the muscles and nerves functioning properly)…I still eschew them…

If you are going with the mash topping then bung the potatoes on to boil. I’m envisioning this as some kind of white sauce enveloped loveliness so I make the sauce first. The rationale being that after the semi-laborious job of slicing all the root vegetables, the layering of the dish will be simplified by adding sauce as I go. I’m aiming for a thick sauce this time so the option of pouring it on afterwards is less likely to achieve the desired coating as the sauce will be too thick to seep into every crevice. However, the proper version I should be making where the moisture is added to the dish by a broth, would work that way fabulously. If you fancy the brothier version (it is equally delish) then you’re actually making your life easier and less calorific…

I’m feeling a bit cavalier today so it’s out with the butter and on with the roux…

…then I come over all ‘béchamel sauce’ and add some nutmeg and pepper…

While that is simmering away to itself and the flour cooking off…I get slicing. The original recipe was diced and pre-cooked but I’m after something a little more showy. I imagine it as a beautiful, statuesque tower of root vegetables bound together with a suave, velvety sauce and positioned perfectly by the side of whatever it is accompanying…whatever!!

Then in a deep oven dish I layer the vegetables in a compact manner. Get them good a gussied up together.

The onions won’t hold their shape – they just won’t. They’re awkward beggars and like to twist and break apart once cooked through, so it’s a risk adding them at all and so I’m only putting a single layer into the middle.

As I mentioned earlier…layer and pour…if you’re using a thick sauce or it’ll just be an embarrassment later (voice of experience).

Then let the whole thing sit for a few minutes and give it the occasional jiggle, just to make sure everything is settled. Then cook it with a foil cover for about an hour (or more…dunno…) in a moderate heat. I like it to have a long, slow process as I believe (based on no fact whatsoever) that the flavours surrender into each other and make for a better result. The broth version cooks quicker and you can’t leave it for too long as the potato, especially, will disintegrate and then you’ll have a full scale onion and potato mutiny on your hands…and it won’t be pretty…

This is the point when I froze it. I shall report anon to how the quivering towers of accompaniment actually turn out…

This recipe is oh so adaptable. Leeks/onions (spring) in the mash or in the filling, seasonal combos galore, creamier sauce or drier stacked filling and so on…let your spirit and cooking soul guide you and create your very own version which you must instantly name and claim as yours

The humble potato, the staple of millions of tables, has a fair bit to offer on the nutrition front so rethink your opinion and, more importantly, your cooking methods. First don’t believe everything you read about GI indexes and all that, because in truth, the results vary hugely depending on considerations like type, origin, the method of cooking, even the temperature they’re eaten at, all play a part in how it breaks down in your body. Complex carbs keep you fuller longer and release slower so you have sustained energy. Potatoes have vitamins (notably C – just under the skin), minerals, fibre and a handful of those handy phytochemicals (see below) we need. Celeriac (celery root but also called celery knob in some places?!?) is the most ignored root vegetable of them all surely? It is staggeringly low in calories as it has a low starch content, it has phosphorus (vital to cell function and regulates calcium for strong bones and teeth) and potassium (water balance, blood pressure management, nerve function), vitamin K and C (healthy cells, growth and repair of tissue, boosts the immune system and much more) and a nice hit of iron (transports oxygen, helps make red blood cells, fights fatigue of body and mind). Carrots are a fab source of beta-carotene. Beta-carotene has antioxidant properties that help prevent ageing damage to your cells, fights cardiovascular issues and the vitamin A that the liver creates from it keeps skin, hair and nails healthy, flushes out the liver and helps your retinas stay in tip top condition. Phew! The swede originated in Central Europe some say, while others go with Sweden obviously, and was originally just used to feed cattle. It has good food benefits for humans too! High in potassium and vitamins A, C , E and K and a great source of fibre.

Root vegetables rock!

Onions are high in phytochemicals/phytonutrients (non-nutritive plant compounds that aren’t used for sustaining life but rather for other aspects like protecting the plant, fighting diseases and also colour and scent. They are believed to have disease fighting properties for humans). The one often mentioned is quercetin which sweeps through the body removing harmful free radicals whilst simultaneously supporting the cardiovascular system, the immune system, promoting bone health and assisting with congestion and fighting mild allergies! Red onions (especially the outer layers) are packed with this and many other wonder compounds too. However, had I gone with leeks then they are chock full of vitamins, minerals and specifically folate and, like garlic and other alliums, antioxidants (notably allicin) – which does lots of wondrous things like help lower cholesterol and blood pressure. If that wasn’t enough, it also acts as a general anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-fungal…leeks are awesome! If you don’t like them then either learn to like them (don’t be so nesh!) or just chuck one under your pillow to have a vision of your future loved one. Hmmm…the wives tale says ‘husband’ but I can’t believe leeks are so sexist and wouldn’t also conjure up the vision of a future wife, partner, or whatever takes your fancy…after all it’s your vision…

Hulme Hotpot..

For The Mother and her sisters growing up in poverty and lack of facilities of a kind unimaginable to anyone these days, there was an attitude towards food that became ingrained in their minds and has never really left them. Born during, or at the tail end of, the war they were ruled by rationing for many years (till as late as 1954 for some products) and they grew up feasting on a single egg a week and a handful of sweets. Subsequently they evolved an attitude to meat that is very different than that today. A commodity so scarce and so expensive meant working around the lack and still filling hungry tummies. You took what you could get and ruddy well enjoyed it. The girls did rather draw the line at whale meat and, although it was touted as the answer to all their hunger prayers, it went into the cat.

When I asked The Aunt about food memories she remembered this dish that they had as youngsters and continued making into married life. The Aunt said, ‘something we did have in Hulme which I doubt it was given a name then (so I, Mathew, have dubbed it ‘Hulme Hotpot’), but I saw a very similar recipe in a magazine some years after my marriage and it was called Colcannon. Generally, a mixture of potatoes, cabbage and meat. Mum used to boil potatoes – I can’t now remember whether they were sliced first – and cabbage (in separate pans), then the cabbage was laid in an ovenproof dish (we had the now-old fashioned enamel ones in brown or white) covered with the potatoes, a little salt and pepper added, then some bacon, having been fried in the meantime, these rashers were cut up and sprinkled in with the cabbage/potato, and the fat of the bacon poured on. We had decent bacon then too, not in plastic wrappers with water! This was then put in a hot oven just till the top had browned. It was comparatively cheap to make and a tasty satisfying meal.’ Yum, with bacon fat poured over it?!? So wrong it’s almost right…

Incidentally, Colcannon is technically just kale (Savoy cabbage at pinch) shredded and mixed into creamy mashed potatoes with seasoning and a few chopped spring onions.

Anyhoo, I’m updating the recipe (such as this is!) to this version to suit my tastes but hopefully hang on to some of the original feeling:

However, taking only a handful of ingredients and not adding heaps of seasonings or faffing about with them seems to be an idea I’m uncomfortable with. Dunno what that says about me really but I definitely feel there is an edge of nerves about making this simple dish and the outcome. So, at risk of being all life-coach-y, I stop and ask myself what I’m feeling and why. I’ll be honest (it’s best when therapising…the truth will set you free) and say I feel that the dish might be bland and I don’t trust that the ingredients will be enough by themselves.  I keep using the fact that I’m doing this as an experiment, as an excuse for the potentially boring outcome. This in turn resonates back to The Mother and The Aunt’s upbringing, implying I feel pricked with issues of guilt and sadness that they had an uninteresting and impoverished nutritional childhood…okay, I said I would NOT dive into a vat of self-therapy, didn’t I? SO…brushing all the ‘feelings’ aside (not a very good therapy result) I press on….

Slice the potatoes and par-boil them. Slice the onion and because, as ever, I’m conscious of adding unnecessary unhealthy elements, I just sautéed the onion slices in a non-stick frying pan and I trim the bacon fat off too! I’m feeling lazy this day so I microwave the bacon…

…I know that sounds odd but placing it between some greaseproof paper (I use kitchen towel as I’ve never got any greaseproof paper!) and nuking it for a good three or four minutes produces a lovely crispy bacon.

Assemble the ingredients in a deep sided oven proof dish. I break the onions up and put them in first. Crumble the bacon over this. Press a good few handfuls of the chopped greens (I’m using kale as it’s seasonal, inexpensive and packs one hell of a nutritional punch) onto this but be aware it will cook down (so add more), and then cover this with the rounds of par-boiled potatoes.

Add the stock by drizzling it over the potatoes. The amount you add depends completely on what texture you want to end up with. A scant perfunctory addition will lead to a drier final product (it evaporates quite quickly in the oven), so I added about a mug full but not so much that it covered the potatoes. This meant the potatoes steamed but browned beautifully and yet the mixture below was wonderfully moist. I chucked it in the oven (Aga actually) at about 200 degrees and cooked it till the potatoes went crispy brown. The basting of the stock at the start is enough to do this. No need to brush with oil or butter etc. –  just let the magic happen.

And it is magical. Delicious. It shows that over seasoned, too salty or generally over complicated dishes are making me forget that a few basic and simple flavours, each allowed to shine, makes for a most delicious dinner…

I tried a ‘Sunday roast’ version of this where I put, in this case, the remains of a roast chicken in the base of a casserole dish then layered all the remnants of the vegetables (broccoli, carrots, parsnips) and then topped this off with sliced roast potatoes and covered the lot in the last of the gravy. Slung it in the oven till it reached the ubiquitous ‘piping hot’ and it was good I can tell you! So now I always do a few extra of everything…!

Nutritionally speaking Kale is a super food. Less popular than some of it’s leafy cruciferous brothers and sisters, it is still relatively cheap and, as its seasonal availability is autumn and winter, it provides a wonderful opportunity to get a good amount of vitamin C through the colder months. It’s also packed with system cleansing fibre and sulphur, calcium (more than milk!), vitamin K for your bones and blood, vitamin A for your sight and skin, heaps of iron and powerhouse antioxidants. It has anti-inflammatory properties (omega-3 fatty acids to fight asthma, arthritis and auto-immune disorders) and gives good cardiovascular support! Hell’s teeth what more could you ask for?!?

Onions are high in phytochemicals/phytonutrients (non-nutritive plant compounds that aren’t used for sustaining life but rather for other aspects like protecting the plant, fighting diseases and also colour and scent). The one often mentioned is quercetin, which is thought to sweep through the body removing harmful free radicals whilst simultaneously supporting the cardiovascular system, the immune system, bone health and assisting with congestion and fighting mild allergies! Phew! Red onions (especially the outer layers) are packed with this and many other wonder compounds too. So get involved!

Potatoes are an often vilified item but it doesn’t take a nutritionist to work out that anything deep fried or whipped with cream and butter is going to get a (deserved) bad dietary rap! The humble potato, the staple of millions of tables has a fair bit to offer though so rethink your opinion and, more importantly, your cooking methods. First, don’t believe everything you read about GI indexes and all that because, in truth, the results vary hugely depending on considerations like type, origin, the method of cooking, even the temperature they’re eaten at – all play a part in how it breaks down in your body. Complex carbs keep you fuller longer and release more slowly so you have sustained energy and feel fuller longer. Potatoes have vitamins, minerals, fibre and a handful of those handy phytochemicals we love. So keep potatoes in the mix and ditch the preparations and toppings that ruin its reputation!