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Beautiful Soup, so rich and green

Waiting in a hot tureen!

Who for such dainties would not stoop?

Soup of the evening, beautiful soup!

Beautiful Soup!

Who cares for fish

Game, or any other dish?

Who would not give all else for two

Pennyworth only of beautiful soup

Lewis Carroll Alice in Wonderland

Soups and stews are nourishing, nurturing, satisfying and comforting. From light and delicate to filling and warming, there’s a soup or stew for every mood and occasion. A steaming pot is a delight to behold and once placed in front of you, can dissolve all the worries of the world.

The story of soups and stews is as ancient as that of cooking itself and goes back to the dawn of culinary time. Throughout the centuries, and across many cultures, soups and stews have played an important part in the world’s culinary history. Over 8,000 years ago, the first primitive tribes would boil foods together to make a sort of stew, and tribes in the Amazonian jungles used turtle shells in which to cook their meat. As for written records, some of the oldest cookbooks dating back to Roman times, contain recipes for lamb and fish stews. There is even a mention of stews in the world’s most popular book of all time, the Bible. In the Book of Genesis, Esau offers a meal of lentil stew to his brother Jakob in return for his inheritance. He must have been very hungry!

There is a fine line distinguishing stew from soup. The ingredients of a stew may be chunkier than those of a soup and retain more of their individual flavours; a stew may have thicker liquid and is more likely to be eaten as a main course. While a stew can be cooked on either the hob or in the oven, soups are almost always cooked on the hob. The choice of name is largely a matter of custom; it is often possible for the same dish to be described as soup or stew—in fact the only thing a soup can be, that a stew is definitely not, is smooth. Soups and stews take a while to cook and are best simmered very slowly, so be patient. They are wonderfully humble and inexpensive to make, mostly using the cheaper cuts of meat.

These cuts are best enjoyed once they have been cooked for hours; cook them too fast and all the flavours escape, leaving the meat dry and tasteless. You must make sure the pot never boils, but ever so slightly quivers with the occasional ‘plop plop’ of rising bubbles. I like to use organic meat, and since these dishes often require the less expensive cuts, they are within the reach of the average household budget. The beautiful thing about soups and stews is that they can nearly always be stretched a little bit further, so are accommodating if an extra guest turns up out of the blue. Plus they improve with age, as the flavours mature and become more fabulous. A three-day-old stew is a rare thing (having usually been gobbled up in minutes), but a truly delicious one.

My wonderful and inspirational mother cooked many of these warming and nourishing dishes for our family from recipes she excavated from ancient crumbling manuscripts. Ever the explorer, she resurrected magnificent dishes from an era that had never heard of convenience food nor was obsessed with fads and fashions, but was bound by the seasons, accepting no less than exceptional quality. It is these amazing meals that have become the bedrock of my own culinary landscape and adventures. Within these pages you will also find recipes from some of my closest friends and family—cooks, chefs and food-writers of immense accomplishment—and I am extremely proud to be able to include them in this collection.

The recipes in this book come from around the world, with many well-known favourites, as well as other little gems that I have adapted to be easily made at home. You’ll also find some much-loved British classics—the soups and stews of my childhood, which remain my true loves. All have been tried and tested on my hungry family and friends over the years. I use weights and measurements as a guide, but each recipe is simply my own version, so feel free to adapt, add and omit ingredients at will. Some of these recipes are as ancient as the hills and have grown and changed as they have passed through the kitchens of generation after generation of loving cooks. It seems only right that they continue to stay alive.

I hope you will enjoy making these recipes yourself, the wonderful smells, the anticipation of the loveliness to come and, finally, the joy of eating them with those who you love and cherish. Good health and happy days.

BEEF SOUPS

BEEF AND BARLEY SOUP

HEARTY BEEF SOUP

OXTAIL SOUP

BROWN WINDSOR SOUP

BURGUNDY BEEF WITH MUSHROOMS

ARTICHOKE AND LEMON SOUP

SHABU-SHABU

PASTA IN BRODO

BEEF STEWS

MR PIANIM’S BEEF CURRY

BEEF, BEER AND MUSHROOM STEW WITH CHEESY DUMPLINGS

BOEUF BOURGUIGNON

BOEUF EN DAUBE

Jeremy Lee’s

FEATHERBLADE

BOLLITO MISTO

Tom Conran’s

CRAZY HOMIES EXTERMINATOR CHILLI

CARBONNADE Á LA FLAMANDE

OSSO BUCCO AND RISOTTO MILANESE