Cheering dishes to get you through lockdown

Now that there’s a chill in the air and it’s getting dark at 4pm, it’s time to turn to those comforting winter staples that get us through the bleaker months of the year. And with lockdown 2.0 in full swing, we have never needed these satisfying dishes more:

Braised lamb shanks

Lamb shanks are one of my favourite cuts to braise. When it comes to meat, braising is great for cooking tougher cuts – like shanks, but also the shoulder, neck and shortribs. It breaks down the connective tissues in the muscles; it’s this connective tissue that makes the meat chewy if cooked hot and fast. If cooked slowly, the connective tissue turns into gelatine, making the meat soft and tender – and also gives body to the sauce that forms around the meat, making it rich and luscious. It’s one pot cooking at its very best: the liquid ensuring that the meat and veg cook evenly and slowly, and the meat giving the sauce depth in texture and flavour: a deliciously symbiotic relationship.

Cottage Pie

When you’re craving comfort food, because you’re ailing or stressed, the time it takes to make the dish also contributes to the comfort: the gentle stirring of a risotto, or the slow simmer of a soffrito, the achingly long low bake of a really good rice pudding with taut, golden skin is its own type of therapy.

The cottage pie is a good example of this: its dark, deeply savoury mince base needs at least an hour on the stove, over the lowest possible heat, as well as almost half an hour in the oven, once the buttery mash has been added. It requires chopping and peeling and browning and boiling and stirring and mashing. But all of those elements, building the dish, make the eventual eating of it even more satisfying, more joyful.

Chicken