As Strong As Soup

This is another step on my nostalgic journey through the past looking for the recipes and types of cooking that I've neglected or forgotten so far in this blog. This time we're back in the 1980s again for a style of British cooking that was based on classic cuisine but was a bit eccentric and purposefully never trendy. It also tended to be upmarket and expensive and so copying it at home was pretty much my only option. This dish is based, rather loosely, on a recipe by the indomitable John Tovey. The combination of liver, gin, lime and jam may sound like an outlandish notion now but back in the 1980s it didn't seem strange at all. There were certainly buckets of gin around back then but, with some noteworthy exceptions, I think they tasted pretty similar to each other. You can't go about your daily business these days without falling over a craft gin or three (and I'm all for that) but I wouldn't choose a modern gin that's too exotic in its flavour here. I ...

Venison is excellent in slow-cooked casseroles but they're often very rich and heavy. There's nothing wrong with that on cold, dark evenings in winter, but sometimes I'd welcome something a little less hefty. This dish uses a classic venison casserole approach but gives a lighter, fruitier result without losing the characteristic flavour of the meat. I admit that this is an odd combination of ingredients but I've never been very good at the authenticity malarkey. I find gin very useful in cooking, especially with game or as part of a cure for fish. Not long ago I was using some gin as part of a marinade and it occurred to me that I could have a special bottle in the cupboard that would have “marinade” flavours built in. So I made a supercharged, marinade gin as follows. Take a half bottle of gin (a decent supermarket London dry gin will do) and add a few extra juniper berries, a few pink peppercorns and 2 reasonably large sprigs of rosemary to the bottle. Reseal it,...