Power Cut Dinner

You know the weather’s bad when you have to get a chainsaw out before you can move the car.

Yesterdays wild storm wiped out our electricity and uprooted our trees. We could see the trees lift from the ground from the security of our kitchen and land in odd places. It wasn’t the kind of day to go anywhere if at all possible but I did go up to our garden to check the chickens hadn’t blown away and give them some food. I couldn’t get to the shops but we still have a few tatty looking veg in the garden. There are leeks that have the green blown off, skeletal kale, the odd beetroot and some quite robust celeriac – robust mainly because they are growing underground!.

I gathered all the beetroots that I could find, half a dozen leeks and some celeriac and headed back to the house to try to get the dinner going before it was totally dark. I made a stew based on recipe for ‘Beet Bourguignon” from the Green Kitchen Stories. This was partly to get rid of a half bottle of red wine that was sitting around on the kitchen counter. I know you’re not meant to cook with rubbish wine but it’s difficult to pour it down the sink when it’s so expensive. It actually did an excellent job , certainly tasted better in the stew than the glass. This take on boeuf bourguigon is very clever. I made it with beetroots, leeks and carrots. The earthy vegetables tasted sweet and unctuous after braising in the wine. I cooked some puy lentils and fried some mushrooms which I stirred in at the end. We ate this with ‘vegetable basket’ mash, that being the celeric from the garden, a parsnip, half a sweet potato, a chunk of pumpkin and a couple of spuds.When they were cooked i put them through the potato ricer which worked perfectly. Who needs electricity! I whisked in some olive oil and we ate it with the ‘bourguigon ‘ on top .It made a delicious dinner  – all the better eaten in the candlelight.