HOW AND WHY do we link food and passion as we do? Oysters and chocolate, champagne and coriander, ginger and honey, nutmeg and rocket – these aphrodisiacs should get top billing tonight as hardly a restaurant in the land will be set up with tables for more than two. Retailers have just surfed a wave of chocolate buying as if the act will speak the necessary. We express love tonight like no other, apparently, as we roll on the fillet steak, and black sole. I’d much rather be eating pie.
What is it that makes us take care over cooking if it is not love, passion, care, commitment? All of the time. What unites foodies is emotion first, then the food. Part of the fun, the enjoyment, is picking over the merits of a dish, and comparing it with the one before, the one after and all the others that will be created alongside. Difference, provided it falls into some vague set of parameters that show some element of love, is what is required and you are a churlish diner if you grumble.
In these straitened times, just think how much love you can put into a pie, for example. Carefully seasoned meat or fish, vegetables even, nestling under a covering of pastry speaks volumes. Rather more, perhaps, than a piece of fillet steak. Short-order cooking requires some skill, but not a great deal of love.
A pie allows for great and real creativity. Frugal passion at its best. We are in the final days of the game season and older birds respond well, the duvet-like covering of pastry or potato sealing in both flavour and succulence. Rabbit – hardly game anymore – makes a fine pie. Difficult to get and a meat we are inclined to ignore, its low fat content and mild flavour should make it a prime contender to challenge the dominance of chicken.
And just think of all the flavour in those cheaper cuts of pork, lamb or beef.
It is not only that a pie takes time, there is a real skill in building a dish like this where all the judgment has to be made in advance. The consistency, seasoning and content all need to be decided before you “top it”. Anything less than devotion and single- mindedness runs the risk of failure.
Love and understanding may well be directed at your chosen amour on this night of St Valentine, but do not forget your ingredients. They require the same attention to detail. It is fashionable to extol the virtues of simple peasant cooking, yet this is far from the same thing as easy and quick. You need to pick well to start with. Plan and execute with extreme precision while at the same time feigning relaxed confidence boarding on indifference. If you think I am kidding, try spending time in a professional kitchen. It is no wonder so many chefs are male. The posing is extreme. Women are far too practical and focused for that kind of carry-on.
Ultimately, it is all about the food. Get behind a pie and you will be expressing your emotions in calm, controlled conditions. The lead-in provides a build-up of perfect proportions. Golden crust, shiny exterior and inside all glowing warmth. What you do afterwards is up to you. Personally, I’m intent on second helpings.
harnold@irishtimes.com
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