Hotpot, hash and meat and potato pie

Even a country as small as England has huge regional variations in food…. isn’t it wonderful! Some regional and local recipes have spread and become a national dish, like Lancashire hotpot for example. I’m guessing there are as many different recipes for it as there are people who cook it, but basically it is a mutton or lamb stew, well-seasoned and slow-cooked with onions and maybe carrots to become meltingly delicious, topped with slices of potato to give a crispy lid to the meal.

Corned beef hash is something I actually do not like, but I wish I did… there is something so traditional about the idea of it; hard-up cooks making a delicious meal out of left overs and cheap cuts – left over cooked potatoes, onions, corned beef, Worcester sauce, all fried to a lovely warming sustaining meal. Again, there must be as many recipes for it as there are cooks!

When I first went to Manchester the idea of meat and potato pie seemed very odd – potatoes, in a pie?? But of course, once tasted, forever loved! It has a special white pastry top, I don’t know if it’s a suet crust, but it is almost the best part of the pie… and to serve it you need pickled red cabbage, if you want to be traditional!

I thought of these three meals because they cropped up in my book ‘Flipside’ which I am editing:

Denise and Steve had been here to the little flat several times, Denise bearing hotpots and tater hash and meat and potato pie, comfort food to ‘build us up’, she said.