A Long and Messy Business. Rowley Leigh

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      VEAL KIDNEYS IN MUSTARD SAUCE

      A very smooth and elegant mashed potato is the ideal

      accompaniment.

      Serves two.

      1 veal kidney, weighing

      400–450g (14–16oz)

      oil, for cooking

      10g (1⁄4oz) butter

      1 shallot, peeled and very

      finely chopped

      1 sprig of thyme

      100ml (3½fl oz) dry white

      wine

      75ml (2½fl oz) double cream

      1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

      1 teaspoon Moutarde de

      Meaux or similar grain

      mustard

      salt and black pepper

      Remove any membrane covering the kidney and cut down

      the length between the lobes to separate it into two parts.

      Turning each part over, cut down either side of the white

      fat and connective tissue and remove it completely. Now

      cut the kidneys into their lobes, which are each the size of

      a modest strawberry.

      Heat a heavy sauté pan until quite hot. Add a film of

      oil, then add the unseasoned kidneys (salting them before

      cooking creates an unattractive beading on the surface)

      and sauté them over a very high heat, turning them from

      time to time until they are seared all over. Tip the kidneys

      out of the pan into a colander or sieve to drain. They are

      definitely best when kept quite pink.

      Without cleaning the pan, melt half the butter in it and

      add the shallot and thyme. Stew gently for 2 minutes until

      soft, then add the wine and cook for 3–4 minutes until it

      has reduced by two-thirds. Add the cream and bring to

      the boil. Turn the heat down and simmer gently for a few

      moments until it reaches a good sauce consistency. Whisk

      in both mustards before adding the drained kidneys,

      seasoning them well and reheating them without letting

      the sauce boil. Swirl in the remaining butter and serve.

      WINE: A rich velvety dish, so the bright fruit and fresh

      acidity of a young Pinot Noir without too much tannin

      would be perfect.

      66

      The Lighthouse

      Daube de Boeuf

      Virginia Woolf may have been a gourmet but she was no

      cook. The famous passage in To the Lighthouse describing

      the daube of beef is, quite simply, full of howlers.

      ‘Everything depended upon things being served up to

      the precise moment they were ready. The beef, the bay

      leaf, and the wine – all must be done to a turn. To keep it

      waiting was out of the question,’ she asserted. How a bay

      leaf can be ‘done to a turn’ is a conundrum at best: it is

      there to give its aroma and to be eventually discarded. The

      beef, and the wine for that matter, are cooked for a very

      long time and the notion that any precision is required is

      somewhat erroneous. One of the many good things about

      a daube of beef is that it will wait around for a long time

      without coming to any harm whatsoever.

      Of course, Mrs Woolf did not pretend to be a cook, any

      more than did Mrs Ramsay in the novel. In those days, the

      cook did the cooking and the hostess took the credit. ‘It is

      a French recipe of my grandmother’s,’ she declares, as

      though possession of the recipe were grounds enough for

      the garnering of praise. The actual cook was Marte, Mrs

      Ramsay’s maid, and it is probable that the mysteries of

      the daube were very much her family heirloom rather

      than that of her mistress. The curious thing is that these

      mysteries have largely been forgotten today. What we call

      a daube is rarely anything of the sort.

      When investigating the daube, I resolved to make it

      exactly as most old recipes prescribe but as cooks never

      now do. Although To the Lighthouse is vague on the

      subject, the suggestion that Marte spent three days

      making the dish suggests a modern style of daube.

      Briefly put, this means that the meat was marinated with

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