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Autumn is upon us again, which means that I'm starting to get back into my winter cooking mode. As I mentioned last season, that means lots of stuff like soups and stews which I find particularly fun to cook (and eat) but which don't often seem appropriate summer fare.
Yesterday I managed to pick up a pack of bacon scraps on special offer at the supermarket, so I made myself a bacon stew. As usual these days, I cooked it in the slow cooker after starting things off on the hob. In addition to the bacon, the bulk ingredients were onions, potatoes, swede, carrot and... a lemon!
I wasn't too sure about the idea of including a lemon in the stew, which occurred to me randomly while I was preparing the other ingredients. I had a couple of lemons left over from an earlier purchase that needed using up, and I thought that a bit of lemon might go nicely in the stew and possibly help to counteract any greasiness in the meat (since I was too lazy to trim off all the fat). After washing the lemon, I cut it in half then quartered each half and lobbed all the bits, rind and all, into the pot.
Since the lemon was serving dual purpose as a bulk ingredient and a seasoning, I'll take a moment to describe the other seasonings used. I decided not to add any extra salt as the bacon was already fairly salty. Using one of my favourite stew cooking tricks, I washed out the remains of a jar of marmalade into it - the orange providing a nice complement to the lemon and the sweetness helping to mitigate its sourness. Apart from that, I used a fairly generous amount of freshly ground black pepper, a large pinch of dried sage, a couple of bay leaves, a few dashes of red wine vinegar and some paprika (which I sprinkled over the bacon while frying it prior to adding it to the pot).
When it came to eat the stew about 7 hours later, I found that the taste combination worked quite well. The lemon provided a nice undertone to it, without being overpowering. After such a long time simmering, the chunks of lemon were very soft and tasty.
I don't think I'll start using lemons every time I cook a stew but I've now established that it's an idea that can work very well, so I'm sure I'll make use of it again before too long.
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