The Subtle & Pleasant Power of Peasant Food
And an old school, delicious casserole recipe you should make tonight.
When it’s cold outside, or I’m missing someone, or when I have that overwhelming urge to cook something that has history nestled within itself — you can bet that I won’t be making a damn salad.
I also won’t whip up homemade Hollandaise or make anything with truffle oil. Pate won’t be on the menu and neither will anything fancy-schmancy.
Instead, I reach for my 70-year-old roaster, or the ancient cast-iron frying pan or the old dented soup pot I bought at a garage sale 20 years ago. My husband has threatened to toss it out but I tell him it has magic in it.
What counts as peasant food?
Well, my peasanty background is full of Brit, Scot, Irish and Czech ancestors who knew their way around a stove. They didn’t have a lot of money but they usually had a garden and also they believed in eating head to tail. For you — it will be something different.
But my peasant food leans toward slow-cooked food like roast chicken, beef or pork; stew, cabbage rolls, casserole, shanks, chili, sausages, and sauerkraut, homemade bread, soup, cabbage, onions, mashed potatoes, rice pudding, and brownies, pie or fruit crisps.
