Potting about…

CHRIS BENNETT is at the kitchen table…

RELATIVELY cool temperatures, along with their blustery cousin, the wind, which have been visited upon our coast for a week or two now, remind me of the old English expression about the month of March.

March is the herald of spring, and is said to, “come in like a lion and go out like a lamb”. Much the same can be said of September on the South Coast this year.

The departure of what we laughingly refer to as winter brings me to contemplating my pots; not the ones with plants but the ones with which I cook.

My culinary interests have never been far from the foreground in my life and when I was in my 20s a friend in Johannesburg, who, before her marriage, rejoiced in the name Miss Jean Brodie, introduced me to the writings of Elizabeth David (1913-1992).

That was in the early 1970s, and Mrs David was at her peak. She is now recognised as the one woman who did the most to restore the devastated state of English food after WWII.

Mrs David had spent the entire war, mostly working with the British administration in the Mediterranean, out of England. In Egypt she befriended Lawrence Durrell, Paddy Leigh Fermor and other literary luminaries, all of whom contributed to her beautiful writing style.

One of the great travel writers of the early 20^th century, Norman Douglas, writer, linguist, scientist and diplomat, had a great and lasting effect on her life, her writing, and of course her cooking. She met him before the war when she was living on a boat ( the Evelyn Hope) at Cap d’Antibes in the south of France. *

It was through the pages of French Provincial Cooking, probably her greatest achievement (it has now been in print for more than half a century) that I came across the advice to use good equipment in the kitchen.

I had learnt a lot, as most of us do, in my mother’s kitchen. She also liked good quality utensils, but it was Mrs David who persuaded me to use French Le Creuset saucepans and Sabatier or Swiss Victorinox knives, which have now served me well for more than 40 years.

The utensils in my kitchen are now getting old; the wooden-handled saucepan I use for making a cheese sauce, and nothing else, was made by another French company, Cousances, which was absorbed by Le Creuset during the last half of the last century. The saucepans are heavy; they are enamelled cast-iron and are remarkable to cook with. My favourite casserole is a glass one from Corning.

As I have a lot more time at home these days I am rediscovering the delights of slow cooking. When I rebuilt the kitchen last year I fitted a hob with a casserole plate. It makes an astonishing oxtail, and I do virtually nothing. The secret lies in the time. The whole production is spread over three days, but you don’t have to stand over it.

We live in an age in which everything is wanted and is wanted now. I find this sad; most things that are worth doing are worth doing well. This is likely to take time, which, if managed properly, is usually available.

* You will find an account of this episode in her biography, “Writing at the Kitchen Table”, by The Hon. Alice Clare Antonia Opportune Cooper Beevor, the granddaughter of Lady Diana Cooper. She writes, you will doubtless be pleased to learn, under the name Artemis Cooper, and is one of Britain’s most eminent biographers. Tanya Potts at Ramsgate Stationers tells me the book is out of print. Try your library and the second-hand bookshops; it is a fascinating read.