Читать книгу The Kitchen Diaries - Nigel Slater - Страница 50

The herbs are essential and I don’t suggest goose fat just to be annoying; it contains a certain magic.

pot barley – 100g

carrots – 3 large

leeks – 3, trimmed and rinsed to remove any grit

celery – 3 medium-sized stalks

onions – 2

garlic – 4 large cloves

dripping, goose fat or olive oil – a couple of tablespoons

enough good chicken stock to cover

a few bay leaves

thyme – 3 or 4 sprigs

sage leaves – 6

potatoes – 4 small to medium

parsley – a small bunch

Simmer the rinsed barley in salted water for about twenty minutes till it feels reasonably tender, then drain it. Set the oven at 180°C/Gas 4.

Peel the carrots and cut them into large chunks, then cut the leeks and celery into short lengths. I think it is important to keep the vegetables in fat, juicy pieces for this. Peel the onions, cut them in half and then into large segments. Peel and finely slice the garlic. Warm the fat in a large, deep casserole. Turn the vegetables and garlic in the hot fat and let them soften a little, but don’t allow them to colour. Bring the stock to the boil in a separate pan.

Now add the barley to the vegetables, pouring over the hot stock and tucking in all the herbs except the parsley as you go. Slice the potatoes the thickness of pound coins and lay them over the top of the vegetables – some will inevitably sink; others will sit on top, the stock just lapping at their edges.

Cover with a lid and place in the oven for an hour and a half, by which time the vegetables will be meltingly tender. Remove the lid (the smell is part of the healing process), turn the heat up to 200°C/Gas 6 and leave for thirty minutes for the potatoes to colour here and there. Remove very carefully from the oven – the pan will be full and very hot – chop the parsley and sink it into the broth.

Spoon the vegetables, barley and plenty of broth into shallow bowls with flakes of sea salt and several firm grinds of the pepper mill.

Enough for 4