Beef in time
From Digby Anderson Sir: In his review of my recent All Oiks Now: The Unnoticed Surrender of Middle England (Books, 29 May), James Delingpole welcomes the fact that Middle England shops impulsively, throws away what it has bought and has 'let our hair down a bit'. This is what I mean by 'Surrender'.
He then goes on to details, dismissing as absurd my claim that the preparation of ingredients for beef in wine only takes a couple of minutes — and thus time is no excuse for not preparing such food. He takes half an hour. He must have this time to chop the onion, trim the fat and gristle off the beef, peel and brown the carrots, coat the meat in seasoned flour and seal it. Perhaps I can help. Don't remove tendons and fat at this stage. Remove them from the meat and stock after the meat has cooked and they have imparted their taste. Don't ever brown carrots. If you must brown the beef in seasoned flour — and it is not necessary — do it while you are chopping the onions. Of course, there are other tasks which have to be done later, more or less at a moment of one's choosing. My point was that Mrs Middle England cannot justify her abdication of cooking for her family by pleading lack of time. In neither the point nor the example do I 'overstate my case'. Me? Overstate?
Digby Anderson
Woburn Sands, Buckinghamshire
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