Meat Stew, Norwegian Style

This is from Penguin’s Easy Cooking for One or Two by Louise Davies, in collaboration with the Geriatric Nutrition Unit (1972). Intended predominately as an aid for older people who  “have never had to cook and are now having to manage on [their] own”,  it’s easily the most depressing cookbook that I’ve read.  It details nutritional requirements for older people, with emphasis on things like eating the appropriate foods after operations, and simple, yet interesting dishes suitable for cooking by people who have lost interest in food due to bereavement or, slightly less depressingly, those who can no longer chew a lot of foodstuffs.   It paints a fairly bleak picture of old age – one where food preparation is at best a trial, and where all food tastes of not a lot (perhaps this is accurate, but it’s made me determined to enter old age with a commitment to cooking properly). Recipes that I shan’t be cooking include Lazy Soup (basically stock with an egg white drizzled in, a la stracciatella), Peptail (a glass of orange juice, with an egg in it) and Digestible Sardine (tinned sardines, mixed with egg. What is it with these people and eggs?). Of course there are some more complex recipes, but nothing that would excite you into actually wanting to make them.

The book is illustrated throughout with nice line drawings of culinary processes – I’ve taken a few pictures which are on Flickr.

The book also has a section on utensils, this section explains what certain items are for those who have no kitchen knowledge – the entry on oven gloves reads:

“a length of material padded on palm surface and folded over at each end to form gloves. The connecting material between the ‘gloves’ lessens the danger of burning the arms above the wrist”

I find this a particularly beautiful piece of writing; I think it’s the effort they’ve gone to to explain something that to me seems very very obvious. It’s endearing.

And now, the recipe:

Meat Stew, Norwegian Style

Serves 2 – or one serving one day, the second serving next day.

Ingredients

Half a pound of stewing steak

Half a cabbage, coarsely shredded

Half a pound of carrots, peeled and sliced

Salt and pepper

Flour

Chopped parsley (optional)

METHOD

1 Cut the stewing steak into fairly large cubes (the butcher may do this for you)

2 Using a medium size saucepan with a tightly fitting lid put in:

(a) a layer of cabbage and carrot

(b)  little seasoning and a good sprinkling of flour

(c) a few pieces of meat

(d) a little seasoning and a good sprinkling of flour

3 Continue to add layers of vegetables and meat sprinkling each layer with seasoning and flour

4 When all the meat and vegetables have been used up less than half-over with water

5 Put the lid on and simmer for about 1 hour, 30 minutes

6 Serve sprinkled with parsley if you like

Results

Notes etc

• I’m not sure why I thought this would a good thing to cook – it is clear from the ingredients list that this is too basic a recipe to taste even remotely interesting.
• I have no idea what makes this Norwegian Style. Is Norwegian cuisine renowned for its mediocrity?
  
• Also unclear is why they insist on layering the meat and veg before cooking. It’s a stew! Unless I wasn’t supposed to stir it at all? Is the layering considered something exciting yet easy to do so the old people don’t get bored..?
• I over-seasoned – too much pepper. Still, at least it tasted of something.
• I had loads left over, so tonight I sliced the beef smaller and marinated it briefly in a rudimentary Chinese 5 spice sauce, then stir-fried the veg and beef with a couple of types of mushroom and a leek, and served it with vermicelli. This was a definite improvement!
• So, yeah. In conclusion, won’t be making this again.