I’m in no way Jewish, but I’ve no problem in magpie-ing the best of other cultures’ celebratrory food. A passover classic then: brisket.
I browned the enormous bit of meat in a pan first, then chucked in an onion, some celery, some garlic, some bay, red wine, Dijon mustard and beef stock. Lid on, I pretty much left it alone for three hours. Once the meat could be torn to bits with fingers, it was ready. I served with a pile of mash and some steamed broccoli, plus some juice from the pan.
The first test for my new Kenwood: a proper cake. It was to take round someone’s house too, so it couldn’t mess up. I was going to go with a cookstr recipe, but I ended up with a Marcus Wareing one. I let the mixer do it’s thing on butter, sugar, cocoa, flour and eggs, then baked in the oven. Oddly it took nearly an hour and a half for a skewer to come out clean, and it was a little on the heavy side. The guests were polite enough, but I trust Liam’s honest criticism: “Dad, it’s too dry”. I’m really not a cake and sponge guy, but I need to fix that this year.
Luckily the coffee cream was out of this world, so much so that I licked the bowl clean afterwards. I blended a strong espresso with mascarpone cheese and sugar, then added some whipped cream to give it some air and bulk. It was great, it’s coming out again in another guise.
I bloody adore a scotch egg. But only a good one, I hate some of those sweaty little supermarket ones with grainy squishy meat and fart-smelling egg. With a picnic coming up, I wanted to make some of my own.
I started with eggs (natch) simmered for nine minutes, which achieves a doneness that all are happy with. Once cooled under running water I peel them. Meanwhile I peel and mash up sausages with some sage, lemon zest and nutmeg. Then I blitz some leftover bread for breadcrumbs.
Now it’s an assembly job: egg shrouded in a flattened circle of sausagemeat, dipped in flour, then beaten egg, then breadcrumbs. Fry for five minutes or les until golden brown throughout. Drain on paper and devour with an eye-watering mustard.
The picnic never happened, but we enjoyed the eggs all the same.
An admission: I didn’t make the meringues. Sorry. Another time perhaps? I just bought a brand new Kenwood mixer and gave it an easy workout: whipping double-cream. I was a little scared at first, I was sure it was going straight into butter! It came out beautifully whipped though, light and airy. For the raspberries I put half of them in a pan with a little water and icing sugar until they started to break down. Then I pushed it through a sieve to get a lovely gloopy coulis. I drizzled some of this on the meringue in a little puddle, added some cream and then topped with fresh raspberries. Dead easy and dead fun. Dead sweet too!
