Most often cooked with
Onion
Garlic
Carrot
Stock
Butter
Parsley
Celery
DillRecipes with bay leaf
Albóndigas in Almond Sauce
Pork and beef meatballs simmered in a pale sauce thickened with fried bread and almonds rather than flour.
Baked Lasagne
Ragu and béchamel layered thin between dried pasta sheets, baked until the top blisters and rested so it cuts into squares.
Bechamel Sauce
A white sauce built on a cooked butter and flour roux, with the milk beaten in by stages so it thickens smooth instead of lumpy.
Beef and Ale Stew with Herb Dumplings
Chuck steak simmered in dark ale until it gives, with suet dumplings steamed on the surface of the pot for the last half hour.
Birria de Res
Beef braised in a deep red chilli broth until it shreds, served as a stew or folded into tacos dipped in its own fat.
Borscht
Beetroot and cabbage soup built on beef broth, with the grated beetroot added late and with acid so it stays red.
Braised Red Cabbage
Shredded red cabbage cooked slowly with apple, vinegar and spice, the acid going in early so the colour stays bright.
Braised White Beans with Sage
Dried beans soaked in salted water and held at a bare simmer, so the skins stay whole and the liquor turns silky.
Carnitas
Pork shoulder simmered in its own fat until it falls apart, then crisped in the same pan so half of it shatters.
Chicken Noodle Soup
Poached chicken and vegetables in a clear stock, with the noodles cooked apart so the broth stays clean rather than thick and starchy.
Chicken Stock
Stock from a roast carcass, held at a bare simmer for hours so it stays clear, and what the onion and tomato soups both ask for.
Chickpea and Spinach Stew
Dried chickpeas cooked from scratch and thickened with fried bread pounded to a paste, which is how Seville gets body without cream.
Fabada Asturiana
Big white beans stewed slowly with chorizo, morcilla and pork until the broth turns thick and orange.
French Onion Soup
Onions cooked down for an hour until they are jammy and dark, then finished under the grill with a raft of bread and melted cheese.
Golubtsy
Cabbage leaves rolled around seasoned mince and rice, then braised slowly in tomato and soured cream.
Gratin Dauphinois
Thin potato slices simmered in cream on the hob until their own starch thickens it, then baked slowly until set.
Herbed Farro Salad
Farro boiled loose in salted water like pasta, dressed while it is still hot, then packed with three soft herbs.
Holodets
Pork trotters and beef simmered for hours until the broth sets to a firm savoury jelly around the shredded meat.
Lamb Rogan Josh
Lamb shoulder browned hard then cooked for two hours in yogurt and Kashmiri chilli, until the sauce is red, glossy and clinging rather than soupy.
Minestrone
A chunky vegetable soup built on a slow soffritto, with beans and small pasta simmered in the broth so it thickens as it stands.
Mushroom and Barley Soup
Dried mushrooms soaked and their soaking liquor used as the stock, with pearl barley cooked in it until the pot turns thick.
Pasta e Fagioli
Borlotti beans cooked down until half of them collapse, with small pasta cooked in the same pot so the starch thickens everything together.
Quick Pickled Red Onions
Thin red onion slices covered in warm sweet-sharp brine, bright magenta and ready to eat in half an hour.
Quick Salted Cucumbers
Small cucumbers held a day or two in a dill and garlic brine, salted right through but still raw and crunchy.
Rassolnik
Barley and pickled cucumber soup, sharpened at the end with the pickle brine itself rather than with vinegar.
Sauerkraut
Cabbage and carrot salted, packed down and left to ferment under its own brine until it turns sour and keeps.
Shashlik
Cubed lamb marinated in grated onion and vinegar, then grilled on flat skewers over embers until charred at the edges.
Shchi
Cabbage soup simmered in meat broth, made sour with sauerkraut in winter and with fresh cabbage in summer.
Shrimp Cocktail
Cold poached prawns hung over the rim of a chilled coupe with a horseradish-sharp tomato sauce, and nothing else on the plate.
Slow-Braised Beef Shin
Beef shin browned hard then cooked for hours at a bare simmer, until the collagen melts and the meat falls apart under a fork.
Slow-Cooked Beef Ragu
Coarse beef mince browned in batches then held at a bare simmer for three hours, finished in the pan with the pasta.
Smoked Haddock Chowder
Undyed smoked haddock poached in milk, with that milk becoming the soup and floury potato doing the thickening in place of flour.
Smoked Haddock Kedgeree
Smoked haddock poached in milk, the rice then cooked in that same liquid, folded together with boiled eggs and curry spices.
Solyanka
A thick sour-salty soup of mixed cured meats, brined cucumbers, olives and lemon, built on their brine as much as stock.
Split Pea and Ham Hock Soup
Yellow split peas simmered with a smoked ham hock until they collapse into the broth, thickening the soup with nothing but themselves.
Sweetcorn Chowder
A thick corn soup that simmers the stripped cobs in the stock first, then blends only part of itself for body.
Ukha
Clear freshwater fish broth, never thickened and barely seasoned, so what you taste is the fish and the water it cooked in.
Vegetable Stock
A light stock of leek, carrot, celery and onion simmered for only forty minutes, because long cooking turns vegetable stock bitter.
Wet Brine for Chicken and Pork
A five per cent salt brine for lean chicken and pork, chilled hard before the meat goes in, with the timings that stop it going spongy.
Zharkoye
Beef, potato and root vegetables braised slowly in one pot until the meat pulls apart under a fork.