My latest artwork is inspired by a winter special and a crowdpleaser in my childhood home – Lancashire Hotpot.
My mum had a menu that changed and rotated with each season. When the nights started to draw in hotpot was added to the mix. She made it in a deep glazed stoneware pot in the shape of a plant pot – a pot I now cherish in my own home.
Mum cooked it low and slow then took the lid off in the final 20 mins of cooking to brown up the top layer of sliced spuds. She dished it up with a jar of pickled red cabbage, fresh vegetables from dad’s allotment and a bread plate for mopping up the gravy.
Recipe for Lancashire Hotpot
It’s the sort of meal you can pop into a low slow oven and forget about it. If your lucky the spuds will catch and caramelise on the top edge of the dish and taste wonderful. There are lots of recipes on the internet, but this is the recipe I remember at home.
- Sliced spuds
- Sliced onions
- Stewing meat like lamb neck end
- Stock
- Put a layer of spuds in a deep oven proof dish.
- Add a layer of meat and a layer of onion.
- Repeat layers of spuds, meat and onion. Season well.
- Finish with a layer of spuds.
- Pour over stock. Cover with a pleated greased paper or a lid.
- Cook in low oven for 2 hours, 350’f.
“Tasty with homemade stock, Mum used the saved onion water from making cheese and onion pie, there aren’t any carrots in it, remove the lid and brown the spuds on the top, eat with pickled red cabbage.”
For extra flavour add a bouquet garni and bay leaf to the layers, and add strips of bacon to the top.
Size 11 x 23cm, hand embroidered with vintage Sylko threads onto cotton cloth.
This piece is part of a collection of work based on Lancashire food.
