Masterclass
Brown meat in multiple, smaller batches
The Maillard reactions that turn meat brown add deep complexity to a hot pot, but too often we don’t take the time to do it right. In previous columns, I’ve shared tips such as browning meat in larger pieces, or browning over medium heat for a more even colour. The goal here is to get a beautiful sear on the meat before it starts releasing liquid and cooling down your pot.
Arguably, the easiest way to achieve this is simply to brown less meat at a time.
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Some recipes call for browning in two or three batches, but I often do it in many more. Smaller batches allow your pot to retain more heat; five or six small batches of just a few pieces each will often give you better results, faster, than overloading the pan.
As a rule of thumb, I keep half of the surface area at the base of the pot uncovered for each batch. This prevents overcrowding that drops the pan’s temperature and causes the meat to stew in its own juices rather than brown.
Browning onions puts you in control
How you brown your onions is one of the most effective ways to control the finished stew’s flavour. We can thank the delicious chemistry of onions and other alliums for this. Cook them fast, and they will brown quickly through Maillard reactions between carbohydrates and sulfurous peptides, giving the dish a savouriness and rich mouthfeel. Cook them slowly, and the starches will convert enzymatically to simple sugars, which brown through slightly different chemical pathways to deliver a mellow sweetness.
Cooking onions quickly over medium heat results in a stew that is savoury and less sweet, while cooking them slowly over low heat produces a sweeter base. You see this principle in action with caramelised onions, which take upwards of 40 minutes to become richly sweet.
But for a Lancashire hot pot, we can actually have the best of both worlds. A quicker fry of about 10 minutes gives us that baseline savouriness, and then the long braise in the oven brings out the sweetness. If you want even more sweetness, you can always cook your onions for longer at the start to caramelise them further.
Browning applies to potatoes, too
I know you’re probably sick of me going on about browning by now, but the final step you need for a spectacular Lancashire hot pot is a layer of golden-brown potatoes on top. Using a good pot with a solid, heavy lid allows the potatoes to steam beautifully on top of the stew while the lamb cooks. However, once the pot is uncovered, you need dry, direct heat to crisp them up.
This can be difficult to achieve in modern electric ovens, which infuriatingly often won’t let you force the overhead grill to stay on if the oven has already reached its target temperature. Even if you crank the oven to its maximum, the grill element will shut off the moment the oven reaches that ambient temperature.
If you’re lucky enough to have two ovens, you can transfer the pot from its hot, steamy oven into a cold, dry one; this gives the overhead grill plenty of time to directly brown the top before the oven heats up. If you only have one oven, simply leave the oven door cracked open for a minute or two to let the ambient heat escape. This cools the oven down enough for the grill element to stay on a little longer.
On the side
Nearly all rich, braised dishes need a bright, tangy side dish to cut through the fat. It’s a pairing we see time and time again in global cuisines – from Indian curries served with tangy pickles and chutneys to Swedish meatballs paired with pickled cucumbers.
The classic accompaniment for a Lancashire hot pot is pickled red cabbage. You can easily pickle it yourself ahead of time, but if you’re short on time, saute or braise shredded red cabbage with a little butter, sugar and apple cider vinegar for a brilliant, fast alternative.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
