Cuisine Grand Mere

I recently cooked two dishes full of nostalgia for my early childhood. One successful, the other not quite so.

This baked apple was a common dish at home and on school and canteen menus. We were lucky, recently, to be invited to Sunday lunch with the Jones. Mrs J is the master of the traditional roast and provided a superb roast chicken with all the trimmings, followed by a baked apple. Hers was a handsome puffed up masterpiece, sitting on the plate like Mr Creosote (see Monty Pythons' Meaning of Life). Mine captures the more homely aspect of this tasty and nourishing classic. OK, OK; I admit it Jacqui's was better.


The squeamish and faint-hearted (no pun intended) should turn away now.

My grandmother died when I was only about 8 years old but I have many memories of her food and with hindsight I believe she was an exceptional cook. Standing over her stove with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth and the risk of a touch of ash to season the food, fantastic roast lunches and great puddings. Something that stands out in the memory is braised stuffed lamb hearts.

I have cooked these before, but not for many years, so I was a bit rusty. As can be seen the heart itself is lean muscle, braised for an hour and a half it was beautifully tender and had a full flavour, more like good braising steak than lamb. I should have trimmed some of the clinging external fat and probably discarded the braising vegetables before taking more care to remove more fat from the sauce as unfortunately it all ended up as being way too greasy.

Nonetheless, this was a true taste of the 1950s and early 60s, conjuring strong images of post war austerity Britain.