Lancashire's glory

"Almost everyone makes simple things badly," claims Northcote Manor chef and joint proprietor Nigel Haworth. Arguably the best meat cook in the country, and a passionate supporter of regional food, he makes hotpot, the glory of his native Lancashire, with unique care and attention to detail.

Hotpot has a long and venerable history. In the 18th century, it was a kind of punch, but it evolved into a meat stew in the middle of the 19th century. In her novel North and South, Victorian writer Elisabeth Gaskell described how Mr Thornton, the mill owner, dined on it with his work-hands: "I never made a better dinner in my life. I told them how much I'd enjoyed it; and for some time, whenever that special dinner recurred in their dietary, I was sure to be met by these men, with a ‘Master, there's hotpot for dinner today, win yo' come?'"

Despite its reputation, it exists in many variations. Food historian Dorothy Hartley, whose book Food In England was first published in 1954, describes it as a combination of lamb chops (with the kidney), fried onion, thick slices of potato and a gravy thickened with flour, which is baked in an earthenware pot for a couple of hours. In Wigan, they believe the potatoes should be covered with a pastry layer. Other recipes include carrot, cabbage and oysters.

To most minds, though, hotpot should comprise a layer of lamb or mutton, smothered with onions and topped with a layer of potatoes which crisps and browns at the end of long, slow cooking in the oven. At its best, the meat is melting, the juices are concentrated and the potato-onion mixture is infused with flavour.

Far too often, what cooks dish up is sloppy chunks of meat swimming in greasy gravy covered by bland vegetables. A textbook recipe taught to college students for donkey's years gives the following ingredients: 500g lamb, 400g potatoes, 100g onion, 1 litre of stock. Haworth uses no more than 100ml of liquid yet the end result is both juicy and succulent. The same textbook recipe concludes: "Serve with the potatoes brushed with margarine."

An authentic hotpot isn't a dish for elegant plate service, a cheffy product in which separate elements of mise en place are brought together with dazzling presentational skills. It is wholesome food which could and should be on the menu in pubs, bistros, staff restaurants and cafeterias.