This month we pay homage to stews, casseroles and any other winter warmers that can be cooked in one pot. As part of the feature, we introduce our new consumer representative, The Sauce, who tries and tests one of our suggestions to see how easy and economically viable it is to cook British. This month's test is a Seasonal Game Hotpot.

Forget central heating. As the British Big Freeze slowly subsides the one thing that will warm us all up is a hearty stew or casserole.  Infused with flavour from the vegetables and slowly cooked meat, these pots of wholesomeness are the ultimate energy booster.  They are fuel efficient as they cook on a low heat for several hours and the ingredients should be available on your doorstep.  They are cost efficient as they involve cheaper cuts of meat and one pot can usually provide up to two family meals.  And, as it is January, they can be calorie efficient, particularly if venison. 

Lancashire Hotpot is the best known of the British one pot dishes.  It became an established dish in the nineteenth century when mutton was one of the cheaper cuts of meat.  The family would leave the meal cooking all day whilst they worked in the factory or mill.   That is not to say that the regional variations of this dish are inferior.  Wolverhampton's Hodge Podge which is believed to be a corruption of the words “Hotpot” and “Scotch Broth”, is utterly delicious.  There are countless recipes for stews and casseroles but what it boils down to is browning the meat, softening the vegetables and cooking them together with some form of liquid, be it stock, ale or wine, over a low heat.  Stews are cooked on top of the hob and casseroles are cooked in the oven.  This is important, as quite often the mistake is made that a one pot meal can only be made in a smart ceramic dish.  For a stew, in particular, a basic saucepan with lid is just as efficient.

One of the other many advantages of the One Pot approach is it is just as easy to cater for vegetarians as it is for carnivores.  Using whatever seasonal vegetables you have available, a Winter Vegetable Hot Pot makes a robust supper and, like its meatier counterparts, can be made in bulk and left to cook on a low heat for a couple of hours.

One pot meals are the ultimate culinary comfort blanket this winter.  To prove this, our mission this month for The Sauce, was to cook a Seasonal Game Hotpot.

The Sauce

Seasonal Game Hotpot

• How readily available were the ingredients (score 1-10 for each major ingredient)?


• Venison – 10. British venison was readily available in several supermarkets and was in plentiful supply.


• Pheasant breasts – 8. I did the shopping for this meal the day before New Year's Eve and hadn't anticipated the popularity of this ingredient.  As a result, Sainsbury's and my local game butcher had both sold out of pheasant breasts (which they both usually stock) so I had to buy whole British pheasants. This worked out to be a a couple of pounds more expensive overall but was very easy to do.


• Potatoes – 10. Extremely easy to find British potatoes with a choice of Maris Piper or King Edward's in my local supermarket.


• Onions – 10. As with the potatoes, these were very easy to find. The loose onions at the supermarket were British as were many of the bagged ones.


• Redcurrant jelly – 10. I used redcurrant jelly I already had, which was a local British brand that is readily available.


• Red wine vinegar – 8. I used red wine vinegar produced in Britain, which was easy to find.


• Thyme and bay leaves – 10. I used British herbs, which I found in the supermarket.


• What was the sum total of this meal
  £20.45, which worked out at approximately £3.41 a head.


• How many people did it actually feed?
  6 large portions with very little left over


• What did you do with leftovers?
  A tiny bit of sauce and onions were left so they were given to the dog.


• Did the meal look appealing?
  Yes, it was nicely browned on top and looked absolutely delicious.


• Is there anything you would change about the recipe?
  The recipe could have done with more potatoes. The ratio of meat to potatoes was high and there was plenty of sauce to be able to cope.


• How did your fellow diners grade the meal?
  Everyone gave either an 8 or 9 out of ten. They felt that pheasant and venison together was an excellent combination and that game in a traditional hotpot was an unusual and interesting
  concept.

Seasonal Game Hotpot recipe - click here

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