Corned Beef Pan Stew

Some of you will look at the picture with disgust and some with unadulterated lust. There are quite a few corned beef dishes on this blog, and rightly so, this along with egg, sausage, chips and beans to some of us is the food of the Gods. The pan stew was reduced a bit more, until thick and umptious, just squish a few of the spuds and you're there.

We call corned beef stew, 'pan stew', some Scots would call it a corned beef Stovie* and if it had some sausages or bacon then those from Northumbria would say it's 'Panaculty'. Either way a tin of corned beef would feed many for little and this dish uses up any root veg that loiter in the cupboard.

I have been making a version of this for at least the two hundred years, ever since Peter Durnad invented that miraculous method of cutting yourself with the iconic tin, yes back in 1810, prior to this you used a hammer and chisel to get into tins, imagine the lacerations. As a way of being able to preserve meat the design caught on, partly and especially loved by soldiers, who could open a tin anywhere, that's why the shape of the tin caught on too, as you could remove the lid and the beef would sit on the base. Such ease was especially useful during the Napoleonic wars; when yer average squaddie had scranned his pan stew he was back in action whilst the French stirred cassoulet; as they say with a Gallic shrug, 'Comme on fait son lit, on se couche' (how you make your bed is how you sleep on it). A tin opener was invented in about 1865, apparently.

Anyway I think this recipe is my favourite pan stew recipe, partly because I was doing something else, I had put a big lump of butter and little olive oil in a big pan and lobbed in onions, chopped carrots, swede, spuds cut in half, and turned them over every few mins for approx twenty mins as I went to and fro doing whatever it was. Then added a beef stock pot, water, quite a bit of Worcester Sauce, two large tablespoons of coarse mustard, lots of seasoning and brought it to a boil to for about ten mins, then added chopped corned beef, and reduced the heat to a gentle simmer and left it for a bit till all cooked through, then I added some frozen peas, and five mins later served it.

Make this as described above and feed to those that also inhabit your house and you will have new found 'legend' status.

*A 'Stovie' (in french, from where it derives, étuvé) is really a one pot dish of chicken or yesterdays roast meat with veg (pots, carrots, swede etc) but use and the internet has diluted it's derivation. Stovie recipes now call for a bisto gravy and a crumbled oxo stock cube crumbled on top of the potatoes, oh how 'povera cucina' evolves. I feel quite snobby writing that 'poor cuisine evolves' I'm not tho. I applaud anyone who cooks, I don't care what it is, or how bad it is. So long as they peel, fry, bake, boil, simmer and serve something that didn't go, 'ping' after three minutes, I've got that cooks back.