Robert and the Aromatics

I’m not talking here about a band from the sixties. I am talking about a recipe book from the sixties.

I’ve scratched around among my collection of recipe books from the past thinking they might hold the answer to dishes with simple ingredients. Food wasn’t so fancy fifty years ago and I think my 2014 Ausfood Challenge might have a chance of getting over the finish line if I keep to a basic recipe plan.

Only those people over a certain age will remember Robert Carrier, who was the last word, in the early sixties, when it came to food and how it should be prepared and served. American–born and raised, he arrived in London via Paris and his cook book recipes are strewn with ingredients more easily found in England or the Continent than out here in the colonies.

I acquired two of Robert Carrier’s books in paperback; Great Dishes of the World and his second book, The Robert Carrier Cookbook many years ago. I found Great Dishes on a shelf, jammed into a row of recipe books and when I opened the book it fell into three sections; the spine is broken and the middle section is completely detached. This dislocation makes the book willful, difficult to manage and prone to dropping open at random pages. Pages with recipes for pheasant in red wine; partridge with lentils; Creole jambalaya and chilled watercress salad. Great dishes of the world in the sixties maybe: but far from basic and not what I am looking for today.

I turn to the front of the book and in section 1 I find the Aromatics: onions, shallots, leeks, chives and garlic. There are suggestions about ways to do simple things, which, according to Robert, will lift a dish out of the ordinary with the use of aromatics. The French lead the charge with their trick of browning finely chopped onions, shallots and garlic in olive oil and butter as a base for a casserole. Leeks, pureed with chicken stock and cream to make up a cream of leek soup, also get the French thumbs-up. More than a page is devoted to garlic and its versatility in both summer and winter dishes; cooks are encouraged to grow chives in their gardens and use them in omelettes, salad dressings and as a garnish for vegetables.

All of these are basic food stuffs and should be Australian grown and available in supermarkets. I foresee Robert and the aromatics getting a workout come winter; I hope the book, with all its frailties, is up to the challenge.