I’m writing a cookbook of my mother-in-law’s recipes in order to give a copy of this book to my kids, my nieces and nephews and eventually my grandkids.
She was from the south of England but cooked for her husband who, like her first two kids, was from Edinburgh, Scotland. She liked the cooking of other lands, and so there are French and Asian in her repertoire as well.
Get about a pound of local lamb, make sure it is cut into (generous) bite-size pieces.
After drying the lamb on a kitchen towel (that get thrown in the laundry), brown the chunks in olive oil (about 6 on our induction stovetop). Then add chopped onion (1/2 onion) and 4-5 garlic cloves. Add to the sauté.
Peel and cube one russet potato. Roughly chop a few fresh (from the garden) carrots and add those, also, and brown just enough so their skin feels it.
Everything pictured here has gone into the soup pot, except the potato peels that go to the compost. And I go out for some fresh sage from the garden.
One of the largest of the carrot tops, and the mother stalk of this sage goes in on top.
Add 3 quarts of water, a tablespoon of scotch, and a cup of barley. Set to simmer for a few hours.
If I can find the japanese spring turnips (Hakurei) is will add those before I put the soup to bed in the fridge tonight. They will be sufficiently cooked by just heating the soup (to bone-warming) before serving it.
If all that is available is the red violet topped turnip that has been standard American fare, then I will add it in the last hour of simmering.
Eventually, there will be a picture of the finished stew – the Scotch Broth. Meanwhile, I’m trying to remember how my mother-in-law served it. She would have fresh baked bread, with butter. Something was crumbled on top. Parsley and coarse salt will work if I can’t remember. She thought France felt like home, she told me when we were returning from Germany on a little road trip for her 83rd birthday. She understood some of the language, their resistance during the second world war, and mostly their cooking, their improvement of good, but inexpensive ingredients. They, like the Scots, can turn turnips and stew meat into something ‘haute’ – high bred. Like the lamb you can get in the north of the UK, and here in Santa Fe, from the Navajo reservation.
A good red wine, like a Syrah, or specifically, a Cote-de-Rhone would go well with Scotch Broth. If may have to be shipped in, and subject to tariffs (in 2025), but my mother-in-law trusted the French for winemaking.
