SLOW and low. Two words that fill me with eternally greedy glee. Because as the last traces of late summer are sluiced away by autumnal rains and sun-warmed paving grows as cold as the mortician's slab, so all thoughts turn to the comforts of the kitchen. And the joys of stews and braises, daubes and ragus, carbonnades, curries and cassoulets. Every culinary culture, from desert nomad to Arctic Inuit, has their own version of gently simmered delight-birrias, gumbos and rendangs; adobos and feijoadas; bigos, tajines and goulash. Dishes where all the work is in the preparation, so that, once the pot has been slipped into the oven or been left, bubbling gently atop kitchen hob or glowing coals, you're free to, well, frolic, caper and cavort to your heart's content. Or failing that, simply take the dogs for a walk.
Because the slow-cooked dish is all about the cheap, resolutely unglamorous cuts-cheeks and shins, thighs and trotters, necks and tails. The tough, no-nonsense bits of the animal, which have lived a life of backbreaking slog. In contrast to those indolent fillets and languid breasts, with their neat, film-star looks and bland, easy succulence. I don't mean to do down these sybaritic treats. They have their rightful, if gilded, place in the culinary canon. But hard labour means good flavour.
Denne historien er fra November 01, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra November 01, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds