A Thick Pottage of Bacon, Beans and Barley,with Wild Garlic and Herbs

Pottage (n) (middle English) ~ a thick soup or stew made by boiling vegetables, pulses and grains, and, if available, meat or fish.

The Italians have proudly given the world risotto, the Spanish paella, both hearty cereal based dishes of peasant origin,  each borne out of the need to make a little go a long way. Had the combined onslaught of enforced land enclosures and rapid industrialisation during the 18th century not brought the English peasantry to its knees, in the process destroying our own cultural food heritage, might pottage still be the English national dish?

My starting points for this recipe were a small quantity of good quality English smoked streaky bacon and, as it's the season, some wild garlic. Our own 'Whitstable' Smoked Streaky would be perfect for the job and is available, via The Native Smokehouse website,  as ready cut lardons. At the Native we cure our pork bellies for a period of six days; each day applying fresh cure by hand. Once cured, our streaky bacon is carefully air dried for a minimum of ten days. Only then is it cold smoked over oak for up to fifteen hours. The result is an old fashioned English bacon, dry to touch and robust in flavour, just like bacon used to be! 

Though I've been cooking for years, like most cooks and chefs, I carry my own recipes around in my head. Quantities are usually measured in pinches, handfuls, bunches and glugs, not exactly helpful when attempting to commit a recipe to paper (or should that be screen?), but bear with me. A recipe is nothing but a useful guide, to be tweaked and altered at your will!

The Recipe

A couple of good handfuls of dried flageolet beans soaked in cold water over night

2 or 3 thick slices of dry cured smoked streaky bacon cut into thick lardons

1 onion, chopped

1 leek, sliced

1 clove of garlic, chopped (yes, the English did use garlic - blame the Victorians for its demise)

4 or 5 sprigs of thyme

10oz or so of pearl barley, washed in cold water

A good couple of glugs of mild ale

A pint and a half of chicken or vegetable stock*

a good bunch of wild garlic (or perhaps turnip tops, kale or a combination)

A few grates of nutmeg

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste 

4 or 5 good knobs of butter

A small handful of chives

A handful of parsley

In a saute pan, deep frying pan or something similar, gently fry the bacon lardons on a low heat until the fat runs free, then increase the heat and brown them. Remove the  browned bacon with a slotted spoon and reserve, leaving the flavoursome fat in the pan.

 Turn down the heat and add the onion, leek and garlic (depending on the quantity of fat the bacon has given up, you may need to add a knob of butter at this stage). Fry on a gentle to medium heat, stirring now and then until golden and unctuous. Meanwhile, pull the thyme leaves from the sprigs, add to the pan and stir in. Add the barley to the pan and stir around to absorb the fat, then pour in the ale (a third of a pint, perhaps) and allow to bubble and reduce a little. Then add around three quarters of the stock, together with the drained flageolet beans, bring to the boil and reduce to, lets say, a rolling simmer. As soon as the barley has begun to swell, season the pan with some grates of nutmeg and four or five turns of the the pepper mill (resist the temptation to season with salt at this stage).The barley requires around forty to forty five minutes cooking, stirring every now and then. If the mixture become a little dry towards the end of the cooking period, add a little more of the remaining stock. 5 minutes before the end of cooking, reintroduce the cooked bacon lardons to the pan and stir in.

 Now, the big question; when to add the greens? You could either add these direct to the pan  along with the bacon or, alternatively, steam them for four or five minutes and refresh in cold water at your convenience, ready to add to the pan along with the butter at the end of the process just before resting. Once the barley is cooked (it should be fairly moist and nutty, with just a little resistance when bitten) remove from the heat and add the butter. Check the seasoning again and add salt only if necessary (this will depend on the quality and saltiness off your bacon). Cover the pan with a lid or foil and leave the contents to rest off the heat for five minutes. Finally, stir in the chives and parsley and ladle into four warmed bowls.
(Serves 4 as a main course, or 6 to 8 as a starter)


*The question of stock! Mine is a domestic kitchen, not a commercial one, and although I make my own stock when I have the odd spare carcass, I am not adverse to using good quality stock cubes to save time. I recommend the Kallo range of organic stock cubes. 

This is an updated version of my very first blog from April 2015