Garden cooking
Not frozen
Marika Hanbury Tenison
My business is food, the best of it, eating it, lots of it and the mechanics of how to produce it. I drink wine with the best of them and know what I like, but I have never been Involved with the intricate subtleties of wine until, that is, I went to join a 'Weekend of Great Wines' at the Castle Hotel in Taunton.
I arrived at the Castle (with memories of having spent a happy night there a few years age in a romantic four-poster bed) to be greeted by a power strike and Bollinger 1966 flowing by candlelight. The dedication and capacity of my fellow guests fascinated Ille; would you believe three clarets with the main course the first evening, not to mention the other wines that accompanied the meal and the superb port and brandy that rounded it off? One guest told me he had gone into training (a high protein diet with low calories and a steady increase of yin ordinaire) for a fortnight to ensure that his nose and his stomach were in good shape.
Having never attended such an occasion before it was inevitable that I should put up a black or two, although I picked up the jargon quickly enough. Wine talk appeared to me to be similar to racing talk about which I know equally little, or else to American soft porn with which, having just breezed through the latest Harold Robbins, I was quite familiar. So I chatted easily about a wine being 'a little short of finish', another being 'a little slow to start with' and a third being 'a bit on the flashy side but with no staying power' and managed not to blush when I agreed that the Mouton Rothschild 'began well' but 'didn't last as long as one had hoped.' But then my host caught me sneaking down a large Bloody Mary before dinner on Saturday night, I dared to light a cigarette during a multiple wine. tasting (so much wastage, I longed to syphon off the dregs for my vinegar bottle) and, horror of horrors, I plucked up the courage to ask for a cheap brandy and ginger ale while my companions were still deep into the Cockburns.
The reason for giving you this intimate low-down on my weekend life is not really to talk about the wines (they were actually marvellous) but to bang on, once more, about my subject, food, because it really gladdened my heart to find the cuisine of the Castle a refreshing reassurance that, contrary to popular belief amongst foreigners, the cooking of all British hotels does not necessarily divide into two categories only — over-pretentious or over-cooked. The Castle served the best of British ingredients: good fish, beef and lamb, well cooked and beautifully served with, what is more, a marvellous selection of local vegetables that were fresh, crisp, a! dente and well up to the standard of the wines.
Why on why can't other people do the same? Around me in Cornwall growers arc having to plough their cabbages and cauliflowers back into the ground because they can't get a decent price for them; yet if you go to the majority of hotels and restaurants in this country you get frozen veg. all along the line. And the same thing appears to be true of the housewife at the moment too. Last year fresh vegetables were at a premium with even the humble cauliflower competing in price with imported avocados until it actually cost less to buy frozen pro duce. This year the situation is reversed with fresh vegetables not only being reasonably priced but, in many cases, downright cheap. We should be cheering, yet the greengrocer is in despair because the housewife is walking past his overflowing counters and into the supermarkets to take home packets of out-of-season frozen peas and beans.
David Prior, the general manager of the Castle, and I share the same views on cooking vegetables: 'Cook them fast, in as little liquid as possible so that the liquid is absorbed rather than having to be drained off and toss them in melted butter with salt, fresh ground black pepper and a touch of ground nutmeg to help accentuate their flavour'. 'Good vegetables,' he said, 'deserve as much attention as the main course itself. When vegetables are in good supply don't just serve one variety and potatoes with a joint. Combine small crisp Brussels sprouts with cooked chestnuts or purée them with a little cream and plenty of seasoning and pile them up on fonds d'artichauts. Cabbage need never be wet, watery or weak; shred it finely, cook with only a tablespoon or two of boiling salted water over a high heat, stirring to prevent sticking, for only long enough for the liquid to be absorbed and then mix in some melted butter, a couple of tablespoons of single cream, salt, freshly ground black pepper and a little ground nutmeg.'
'Cook, peel and slice beetroot and add them to a rich cheese sauce with paprika or a sweet and sour sauce. And try a purée of celeriac or parsnip fritters cooked in a light batter made with beer.' There are so many outstanding vegetable dishes to be made so who, with prices as they are now, needs to serve frozen peas at this time of the year?
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