Globecooking recipe : Alnwick stew (England)

We've been having some pretty cold weather lately so I've been digging out some new (or at least new-to-me) recipes for traditional winter warmers. Think pots of slow-cooked goodness, tasty curries, satisfying soups ... and Alnwick stew. I'd never heard of it before when I saw someone mention it on social media, but when I looked it up on google, I knew it would go down well.

Alnwick is a county town in north Northumberland, situated close to Berwick-upon-Tweed and the Scottish border, as well as Newcastle upon Tyne. It is home to Alnwick Castle, which has featured in Blackadder, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and, more recently, Harry Potter. This won't mean anything to you, but I was shocked to see that it is also twinned with Bryne, in Norway, which I visited last year when we were staying in Stavanger - talk about a small world !

Anyway, back to the food - it's simple to prepare, kid-friendly and used nothing but store-cupboard basics and a joint of gammon that was in the freezer. You could also use thick cooking bacon instead of gammon, if you prefer.

Alnwick Stew

ingredients :

a gammon joint (or a pack of cooking bacon)

a knob of butter

2 onions

1tsp English mustard powder

2 bay leaves

salt, pepper

4-5 potatoes

1l vegetable or chicken stock

Pre-heat the oven to 190°C/Gas mark 5. Chop the gammon into medium sized chunks.

Use the butter to grease an oven-proof dish. (I used up some Frylight spray instead.)Scatter over some onions.

Top with half of the gammon.

Add a layer of potato slices and season with salt, pepper and mustard powder. Tuck a couple of bay leaves in there too.

Repeat all three layers to use up the rest of your ingredients.

Pour over the stock until it comes up to just below the top layer of potatoes.

Bake in the oven for an hour and a half. The potatoes should go lovely and browned on top.

We really enjoyed this, even if all of the stock was soaked up by the meat and potatoes. I was tempted to add gravy, but in the end, it didn't need it. Keep a check on the last half hour of cooking though, and add extra stock or remove from the oven if the potatoes and meat are cooked through.

*** Adding to my globecooking recipe index ***