Kitchenella: The secrets of women: heroic, simple, nurturing cookery - for everyone. Rose Prince
garlic cloves and about 450–600g/1lb–1lb 6oz raw chicken thigh meat, diced. Cook for 1 minute then add 350ml/12fl oz tomato sauce and 4 tablespoons water. Cook for about 10 minutes and eat with rice.
• Toasted flatbreads – for very easy emergency meals, place slices of mozzarella cheese and a spoonful or two of the tomato sauce between 2 pieces of focaccia or ciabatta (or any open-textured bread roll – or inside a pitta) and toast in a dry pan, on both sides, until the cheese melts. Use a panini grill if you have one.
GETTING WHAT YOU ARE GIVEN
My mother was a housewife. ‘You are all so lucky,’ she said not long ago, ‘in the way you can do jobs.’ She had six children in total; when the last was born, her eldest was sixteen. For more than twenty-six years she was caring for school-age children. We were not always all together at home but there was a period when the brood was young and looking after us all must have been hard emotionally and physically. The argument against women with young children taking other employment is strong. But for many of us there is no option. I am not a full-time mother, to coin a horrible phrase used by non-working mothers, so I have to concentrate the duties into a shorter time when I am not working.
In contrast, my mother devoted herself to home-making. She was a perfectionist. She decorated her house cleverly and collected pretty, original things; she gardened with extraordinary knowledge, tending a vegetable garden, and out of her kitchen came wonderful food. Due to the sheer number of children around the table, pleas were not heard if we did not like something. We got what we were given. I hear many people say that it is absurd the way today’s children get away with refusing food. ‘If we did not eat it, we had nothing else,’ they recall.
Giving in
If my kitchen was a third world country I would be described as a failing nation. The infrastructure would need rebuilding and new law established. But if you visited, I bet you’d find there was charm in the chaos. My mother’s excellent example of a firm but fair regime is not often repeated in my kitchen. Surveying the supper table, I know all has gone wrong when everyone seems to be eating something different. One child is eating an omelette because shepherd’s pie is the dish they hate more than anything. Another is heading for the toaster complaining that the shepherd’s pie is not like the one we had last time, and my husband has refused the courgettes. (‘You know I hate courgettes.’)
And, yes, I agreed to cook the omelette, because I like to see a teenager eat. I should have stopped the other one making toast. Like many, I avoid rows, and older, literate children have the ability to argue until midnight. After a day’s work and feeling frayed, I am not sure I want to spend the evening with angry young people.
What matters is finding a pot to please children. Food they like, and which you like, too.
Helping themselves
I have found an answer in dishes that can be shared; taken in the amounts each person wants. It makes for a much more peaceful meal and is similar to the Asian style of eating. The various components of a meal are put on the table – for example, meat, bread, salad, sauces – and everyone eats communally. Plating food is the antithesis and bound to raise conflict. The most obvious example of a help-yourself meal is a roast. There are no fights over roasts (except for extra potatoes) because the child with a huge problem with cabbage or bread sauce can avoid it. This may sound like giving in, and if a child refuses to eat a diet with any balance then help is needed, but in my experience children will come round to foods if they are not pressurised. It is a matter of timing.
But what of everyday food – the more economical things we can prepare quickly after school?
• Pasta can be served with either smooth tomato sauce, or just with olive oil and grated cheese, with pesto or with fresh ricotta.
• A simple stew can sit ungarnished in a casserole, while baked potatoes, sour cream, herbs, vegetables, sautéed mushrooms are there too, if anyone wants them.
• Mildly spiced meat curries go on the table, but adults can pep up theirs with hot chillies and sambals. Children can try yoghurt sauces and dal – and I have found they become more adventurous with this unpressured style of serving food.
• I serve sausages with mashed potato, for the comfort-food addicts, but also make a pot of homemade white haricot beans, garlic and tomatoes, which can be stored in the fridge for other meals if it is not eaten.
Braised chicken rice, steamed with allspice
see PLATE 6
There is a recipe I have cooked consistently since the children were tiny. It takes only 20 minutes to make and can be made both with fresh or cooked chicken. You can also vary the other ingredients – there is a list below the recipe. It is a dish of modern compromise that makes peace in a battle of wills. An easy pilaff that would be plain without the addition of the earthy scent of ground allspice and the mellowing flavours of ground coriander seed. Once cooked, put it on the table, surrounded with bowls containing the yoghurt sauce, herbs and nuts.
Boneless free-range chicken thighs are easy to find and cheap to buy, but I have also made this with leftover leg meat from a roast – there always seems to be some over because everyone eats the white breast meat.
SERVES 4
2 tablespoons pinenuts
2 tablespoons dripping or butter
1 onion, finely chopped (see Kitchen note, below)
5 allspice pods, crushed in a pestle and mortar, or 1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground coriander seed
4 boneless chicken thighs, cut into children’s bite-sized pieces (or equivalent of leftover roast chicken)
200g/7oz basmati rice, rinsed in a sieve under the cold tap water or chicken stock to cover – about 1.2 litres/2 pints
salt and black pepper
To serve (optional): Greek yoghurt, chilli sauce, coriander leaves
Use a large heavy-based frying pan to cook this dish. Cut out a circle of greaseproof paper or baking parchment that is 1cm/½in larger in diameter than the pan. Place the pan over a medium heat and add the pinenuts. Toast for about 3 minutes, shaking the pan from time to time until they are golden. Transfer them to a separate plate.
Put the fat into the pan. When it melts, add the onion and cook over a low heat for about 5 minutes or more, stirring, until it is pale golden. Add the spices and the meat and cook for another 2 minutes, stirring slowly. Add the rice, stir over the heat for 1 minute, then add enough water or stock to cover to a depth of about 1.5cm/¾in. Bring to the boil, turn down so it slowly simmers, then cover with the paper, pressing the paper down on to the surface of the pan’s contents. Leave to cook for about 12–15 minutes, then lift the paper and test a grain of rice to see if it is tender. Give it a few more minutes if not, paper lid on. Add about 100ml/3½ fl oz more water or stock if it seems dry. When the rice is tender, lift off the lid, season with salt and pepper and stir. Put on the table with a bowl of Greek yoghurt to eat it with, plus the pine nuts, chilli sauce and coriander leaves in separate dishes.
OTHER WAYS
• Herbs – fresh mint, parsley, chives, dill leaves.
• Nuts or seeds – unsalted shelled pistachios, toasted flaked almonds, sunflower seeds, nigella seeds.
• Sauce – sour cream, crème fraiche.
• Also – sliced mild red or green chillies for the brave, shallots sautéed in oil until crisp and sweet, sautéed or grilled tomatoes, roast pepper.
Kitchen note
Much of the time, children do not like home cooking because the basics are not right. You have to prepare and cook the fundamentals, such as onions, properly, or they are disgusting to children. Cooking them slowly – about 5–10 minutes in simmering, not