Spring is here, probably my favourite time of year: dogs running about in parks, daffodils waking by the towpath, the sun with it's cheery optimistic shine and lashings of clinky drinks, gin and tonics and the like. I have been watching Sophie Dahl's new cookery program, a series that seems so wonderfully and quintessentially British is makes the heart sigh. I must admit when I first heard Miss Dahl was to delve into such a kitchen table culinary foray I watched with an air of caution, Miss Dahl does not eat meat and I rarely trust those that don't especially if it's for any other reason than heeding medical advice.
It almost goes hand in hand with the warnings of butchery scenes before the food television of today. I am of the opinion that if you are to eat meat (or I 'spose it could apply to any food stuffs more or less) you should know of it's origins and where it has come from, if possible.
If you are to eat meat, butchery is after all a reality and I have no problem with seeing meat hanging in the market or things still holding onto their heads post mortality. One of my favourite things to cook is rabbit stew and I have before now decapitated, gutted and skinned a few rabbits from scratch. I am much happier to eat this knowing I prepared it myself; it's not a blood thirsty desire to butcher it is more a chance to exercise my morals when it comes to the consumption of meat per se. These skills of basic food preparation have been lost to shiny artificial produce vac-packed in supermarket chillers ready and waiting for us. I'd be telling porkie pies if I was to say I don't shop in Supermarkets, these days I seem to always shop in supermarkets for the great majority of the time but it is worth remembering the joys of cooking as opposed to just re-heating even if it is as basic as a baked potato. Sometimes the most basic of dishes are the best and most comforting. Cooking is a skill that should be practiced by all.
What Sophie Dahl does is take the most basic recipes but gives them a twist and although Dahl chooses not to eat meat (her prerogative) her meat recipes are re-told with the same charming zeal and passion as the rest. Every dish in her book and series has a back-story and echoes the works of adored food writers Elizabeth David or Jane Grigson; each recipe is evocative of a time in a life, a memory or an emotion. We all eat so therefore we all have food memories, food is a wonderful and much under-estimated emotional trigger.
I am slightly odd in that I really enjoy reading food writing and like nothing more than sitting down with a strong cup of tea, a couple digestive biscuits (to dunk of course) and a heavy lusciously produced cookery book on my lap. I don't have to be consuming the food to find joy in it.
As I glance over at our bookshelf it strains under the pressure of row after row of culinary tome: an ancient copy of Mrs Beeton nestling alongside Nigella, Rick, Jamie, Gordon, Marco and Hugh, Clarissa and Floyd, I have eclectic tastes if nothing else but each has their reason and each one has recipes I have and will return to again and again. A Foodie? I'm not sure, but one thing I do know is I enjoy eating and a treat every now and again is without a doubt a necessity.
Produce does not always have to be lovingly made single handed by a farmers wife and placed into kilner jars with accompanying doilies for it to be good. Ben & Jerry's, Marmite, Cheerios even Mr Kipling etc are all good and very much evocative of different periods in my life. One thing I will say is that you'll never beat a cake made by the W.I. and I wouldn't wish to try either. Who wants a pancake on pancake day without artificial Jif lemon? Not I! Sometimes tradition must hold the upper-hand; the W.I. Victoria Sponge, produced to perfection deserves to sit upon the same pedal-stool as Cadbury's Fruit & Nut or Bassetts Licorice All-Sorts, not the best ingredients, not the healthiest but certainly the most loved. Dahl, among others (I'm thinking of the self-styled domestic goddess that is Nigella Lawson) take the pretensions out of cookery and give us the license to reminisce through gluttony guilt free and surely that is what food is about? Enjoyment? Eat what you wish to eat but be brave from time to time and try new things.
For me knowing your food's origins and how it comes to be upon your plate (the art of butchery as one example) enhances your appreciation for what you are eating. It's perfectly fine to fill up on Cadbury's and chow-down on Golden Grahams but from time to time please support our local artisan producers for whom their produce is not only a passion but a way of life and it'd be a travesty to let them go unnoticed and dissolve into history.
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