Page 40 - Delicious - UK (February 2020)

Some vegetables I’m thinking carrots,
potatoes, parsnips and cabbage are

dependable; always there when you need
them. Then there’s the onion, which stands
apart, like a culinary overlord. From a
cook’s point of view, it’s everywhere. It’s
the whisper you can barely distinguish in

a complex stew, it’s the warmth you feel
from a gravy-rich pie on a cold winter’s
evening. It ghosts its way through myriad
dishes with unmatched magic and subtlety.

The onion is the foundation of the familiar,
the unusual and everything in between.
Without it, I’d be lost at sea, adrift in a
becalmed kitchen with no direction home.
Sometimes I wonder if the harmony the

onion creates behind the scenes is taken for
granted. Should we celebrate this wonderful
vegetable more often and make it the flesh
and blood of a meal, not just its backbone?

I think so, and that’s why this month’s
recipes are all about this wonderful allium.
And what better month to sing its praises
than grey, wintry February?