A Southern Scotch Egg

In 1954 West Germany defeated the Swiss in the football World Cup; in Morocco a swarm of locusts destroyed £10 million worth of citrus fruits in just six weeks, and on home turf in Blighty Roger Bannister ran the first ever mile in under four minutes. But even closer to home (for me anyway), in a small village just off the Great Cambridge road, a stone’s throw from the house where I grew up, a butcher named Douglas White and his wife Anna created a humble masterpiece – The Braughing Sausage.

For over five decades the people of East Hertfordshire have paid allegiance to ‘D.White Butchers’, and while many things have changed in the local area; the development of Stansted Airport, yours truly moving into town in October 1994, and more recently the welcome invasion of ‘Standon Calling’ festival less than one mile from the shop. The recipe for the sausages has remained the same. Unlike it’s bullying cousin the Lincolnshire Sausage, steeped in it’s history and aggressive in taste, the Braughing banger has a much smoother and more rounded flavour; versatile without being apathetic, chivalrous but not arrogant, strong and silent. By which I mean that it holds it’s own as a stand alone, but at the same time gets on with everything.

A while ago I read an article in one of the fall-out-sections of the Sunday paper about a man in the North West whose love of the equally humble Scotch egg had led him to repeatedly experiment in the kitchen to create the ultimate hybrid of the classic snack. ‘The Manchester Egg’ was born and has gone from strength to strength, and ever since I read the article I’ve been desperate to try one. It consists of a pickled egg, wrapped in spiced black pudding and coated with Japanese panko breadcrumbs, and is accompanied by the tagline – “A hearty commodity worthy of a gentlemen”. The words sold it to me and the pictures sealed the deal, yet although the Manchester Egg is on the up, it really needs to be eaten fresh, and East Herts is quite a way from Old Trafford. So it was up to me then, to make my own version of the savoury snack, with a little sweet chucked in for good measure.

So without further ado, I present ‘The Southern Scotch Egg’.

Ingredients: (Makes 9)

700g Braughing Sausages, skins removed

1 tspn thyme leaves, finely chopped

2 tspns fresh sage leaves, finely chopped

2 tablespoons chives, finely chopped

1 tablespoon runny honey

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

100ml water

Salt and Pepper

11 large free range eggs

150g plain flour

2 tablespoons hot chilli powder

200g fine white breadcrumbs

Vegetable oil for deep frying (1.5 litres)

Method:

1. Put 9 of the 11 eggs into a large saucepan, cover with cold water and bring to the boil. When the water starts to bubble time for exactly 2 minutes, take the eggs off, pour out the boiling water and run the eggs under a cold tap in the colander for a few minutes. Leave them to cool down for a bit.

2. In a blender add the sausage meat and water and pulse until the meat is fairly smooth, remove and chuck it into a bowl. Add the chopped herbs, honey, the mustard and a pinch or two of salt and pepper. Mix it well until it’s evenly combined. Get a long piece of Clingfilm out onto the work surface and make 3 balls of the meat mixture about the same size as a snooker ball and put them onto the Clingfilm set apart about 8 inches, put another sheet of Clingfilm on top and push the meat out into disks about 5-6 inches across.

3. Take care to peel the eggs very carefully as they are only soft boiled and very delicate; when you got all 9 shells off pull up the top layer of Clingfilm and pick up the meat disks, one at a time, and wrap them around the eggs evenly so they make perfect spheres and none of the egg underneath is showing. Repeat this 9 times until you have nine meatballs with eggs hiding inside.

4. Get 3 bowls, in the first put the flour and chilli powder in and mix them together with a little salt and pepper. In the second crack and beat the remaining 2 eggs. In the third put the breadcrumbs.

5. Heat the oil in a deep pan till it pushes the 200°C mark, seriously hot basically. Roll the balls through the flour, then the egg, then the breadcrumbs. Deep fry them in batches of three until they’re golden brown, get them out with a slotted spoon and leave them to drain on kitchen towel. Serve with salad and Mary Berry’s ‘Special Mustard Dressing’ from Waitrose, the best dressing in town. 

Whisky Seared Scallops

We don’t eat nearly enough of our own shellfish in the British Isles, which is a crying shame as we have some of the best in world. Instead it gets shipped twenty miles south to the French who turn it into the sublime, whilst we on home shores make do with cod, haddock, plaice or sole. These are all great fish in their own right, don’t get me wrong, however our general ignorance and frequent stubbornness as a nation of consumers has, over time, channelled us into a rather unadventurous set of fishy doldrums, humoured occasionally by squalls of ‘smoked salmon’ masquerading as faux-swanky-canapés during the small talking foretaste to a dinner party.

‘The Big Fish Fight’ has attempted with some success, to bring back our home grown produce to the tables of Britain, however there is still a long way to go before we are regularly eating mussels for instance. The coast of Britain harvest some of the best in the world yet you’re lucky to find a single bag in Tesco, and if you do they’re more than likely frozen, or worse still ready cooked in a plastic pot. Then there’s the lonesome Cornish clam, Waitrose is the only super market I’ve found that stocks them and even then you quite often have to pre-order.

“But they’re expensive and a hassle”, I hear people say.

Wrong on both counts in fact; you can quite happily feed a family of four with a huge bag of mussels for under a fiver and they cook in five minutes. Cream, leeks, butter, crusty bread, boom. Next question?

There is really no excuse for being selfish to the shellfish, the furthest geographical point away from the sea in the UK is Church Flats Farm near Coton in the Elms, Derbyshire, and that’s only 70 miles from the bountiful Norfolk Wash. So with the planned raise of the national speed limit from 70 to 80mph, you could stay with Henry and Joyce Blackwell in the evening and try some of their home grown lamb, and the following day scream down to Skeggy for a spot of fishing. Perhaps even stay at Butlins, if that’s your vibe?

I conclude then; when Hugh Grant spoke of Britain being “A great country, a country of Shakespeare, Churchill, The Beatles, Sean Connery, Harry Potter, David Beckham’s right foot, David Beckham’s left foot come to that”, he should have spared a word or two for our mussels, our cockles, our clams and our scallops.

Rule Britannia.

 Ingredients: (Serves 4)

20 British scallops, coral on or off, your choice, I like it

3 British shallots, finely sliced

A slug or two of Scottish whisky

Healthy knob of English butter

Olive oil, European but from one of the colonies

Handful of curly British parsley, finely chopped

Method:

1. Using a sharp knife graze some shallow cross hatching into one side of the scallops. Heat a little oil and butter in a frying pan over a medium high heat and sear the scallops for a minute or so on either side. Throw in a wee drab of whisky and using a match, light the pan, it will flambé instantly and rather vigorously so take care not to set light to yourself. Let it burn for a few seconds, actually 3, then blow it out and take the scallops out of the pan and onto a plate.

2. Return the pan to the heat and add a little more butter and oil, when it’s sizzling chuck in the shallots and fry them till soft. Chuck another wee drab of whisky in and set alight to it, again let it burn off for a few seconds. Now add the cream and mix it in thoroughly whilst still cooking. It’ll make a beautiful golden sauce. After another minute chuck in the parsley, stir it around, take it of the heat, plate up the scallops and pour the sauce on top. I actually returned the scallops to the pan when doing my second lot and tossed them in the sauce before serving. It gave them a real good coating.

Pork Wrapped in Bacon with Super Smash and a Vermouth and Mushroom Sauce

A pig isn’t just for Christmas, you can eat it on Boxing Day too. Sentiments I shared up until a couple of years ago when I found myself driving through Somerset in my 1986 Mercedes 608D, complete with mock oak flooring, tiger print upholstery, 2 hob cooker, Roman tiling, bespoke spice rack, carpeted walls, and of course 1500 watt super sound system. To those of you don’t know what I’m talking about the snub nose 608 is the holy grail of campervans, six and a half tonnes of pure unadulterated metal, a labour of love, and now part of the family. In fact there are so many comparisons between me and my Mercules it is rather uncanny: we were both born in 1986 for starters, and were extremely painful to deliver. We’ve both got a lot of things going on inside, some of questionable taste and none screwed down. Then of course we are a huge drain on resources; in fact having committed to my beloved van I now have a heightened appreciation of my parents and what they did for me in the first 20 years of my life, what they still do for me. The fact is no matter how much care and attention he needs, no matter how much money I have to throw at him to get him around Eastern Europe again so I have a comfy bed to retire to after 24 hours standing in a glorified ditch, listening to the strangely therapeutic roll of a Psychedelic bass line. I will continue to do so, because I love him, and that is the greatest curse a man can be blessed with.

So, as I was saying, me and my Mercules (and my little sister Claudia) were driving through the beautiful rolling hills of Somerset on our way to pick up the latest addition to the ever growing hoard of livestock; a pair of eight week old pedigree Kune Kune piglets. Cute doesn’t even come into it, these two reduced me do a swooning wreck of peculiar noises immediately, and it was all I could do to pay the breeder and sign the ownership papers without joining them both in the mud to see what all the fuss was about.

On the way home the newly named ‘Bangers’ and ‘Mashed’ were good as gold in their box in the back of Mercules, that was until after nearly four hours driving and only a few miles from home they both escaped with a squeal and a snort and joined us up front. It conspires that contrary to popular belief pigs are rather clean and well mannered creatures, of course they appreciate a good wallow, but when it comes to defecation they refuse point blank to pass stool in their sleeping quarters. Poor little Bangers and Mashed were so desperate they simply couldn’t hold on any longer and had staged a daring escape from the confines of their box, in order to crap all over the mock oak floor of my van.

Many a happy hour was spent playing with the two new family members as they ran through the kitchen squealing, chewing the tails of our confused dogs, and repeatedly falling into the neighbouring duck pond prompting a full scale rescue operation. The stories are true, pigs cannot swim.

Anyway, a year or so went by and contrary to what the breeder told us Bangers and Mashed continued to grow at a rather alarming rate. We weren’t after a micro swine plagued with inbred health conditions to carry around in a handbag, however our kitchen garden was fast resembling the Somme and the chance of the vegetable patch surviving were slim to none. It had got to the point where had Bangers decided to go for an impromptu dip it would’ve taken more than one of us to hoist him to safety. After two years it appeared we would have to part ways after all.

I know what you’re thinking, the recipe is a piggy one, but don’t worry, we didn’t send them off to the abattoir to be strung up. What we actually did was to find a piggy sanctuary not too far away from home where the two of them could live happily ever after, and we could visit them whenever we wanted. Alas Bangers died from a heart attack shortly after he arrived (perhaps his naming pre-ordained his fate), Mashed however lives on happily, burrowing around, snuffling, and doing general piggy things.

This recipe is a celebration of our 45 million year old friends, the wonderful, lovable, and not so dirty pig. 

Ingredients: (Serves 4)

1 pork filet (loin)

16 rashers streaky bacon (2 packs)

Wholegrain mustard

8 large potatoes, Desiree or Maris Piper will do

1 head of brocolli, pulled into medium florettes 

1 leek, chopped finely

2 shallots, chopped finely

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons of runny honey

2 tspns English mustard

200g chestnut mushrooms, finely sliced

100g butter

1 tablespoon plain flour

400ml vegetable stock 

150ml dry vermouth

Olive Oil

1 egg

50ml double cream

Salt and Pepper

Asparagus to garnish (in season in spring, mine tasted bland)

Method: 

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees centigrade.

1. Lay out the streaky bacon on the work surface slightly overlapping each piece, pat the pork filet dry on kitchen towel and position it in the middle of the bacon. Smother it in wholegrain mustard then wrap the bacon around the filet, place it on a baking tray and put it at the bottom of the oven, cook for 40 minutes. The pork can turn dry if you over cook it so be careful not to overdo it, you want the bacon to be going a little bit crispy on top.

2. Whilst the pork is cooking peel and chop the potatoes into halves, put in a large saucepan with cold water and a pinch of salt. Bring to the boil and cook for 15 minutes until soft, drain in a colander.

3. At the same time as the potatoes are boiling boil the brocolli till soft, strain and set aside. 

4. In a frying pan add a little butter and oil and fry off the leeks until they are soft but not browning, then add a small slug of red wine vinegar and cook it off, take off the heat and set aside. 

5. Mash the potatoes with the double cream, 50g of butter, the egg and lots of seasoning. The heat from the potatoes will cook the raw egg and it will give the mash a great taste and colour.

Now add the leeks, honey, brocolli and English mustard and stir thoroughly until it's all mixed through, this will give you the super smash you want and need.

6. For the sauce melt 50g of butter in a saucepan and add the flour to it, this will become instantly thick and lumpy. Add the stock to it a bit at a time a stir it in, as it absorbs it and becomes thick again you want to continue adding until you reach the right consistency; like double cream. When this happens add the vermouth, mushrooms and shallots, add a little seasoning and simmer until the pork is done. About 20/25 minutes, this will ensure the shrooms and shallots are soft and flavoursome. 

7. When it's all ready dish up the super smash, dump the pork wrapped in bacon on top, surround it  with a pool of the sauce and sling on a couple of steamed asparagus tips (when in season), and you're ready to go. 

Pear, Broccoli, Celery and Stilton Crumble

The fruit trees in the garden are seriously heavy at the moment, laden with cooking apples and berries and crab apples and pears, the latter of which we have in such abundance I’m sure we could ferment a considerable amount of our own Perry, which I will look into. But in the meantime I got to thinking, when it comes to our fruit bowls at home the humble pear takes a backseat to the more exotic orange, the phallic banana, the sour grapefruit and the frankly ostentatious pineapple.

I personally would have a ripe pear over any of the above and aforementioned, however as is often the case ‘out of sight is out of mind’, and the poor pear remains all too often and unlike its name would suggest, all alone. In fact my only run in with the fruit in recent memory was in its liquid form in the belly of a psychedelic trance festival 100km south of Lake Ballaton in Hungary, it was magic.

Ingredients: (Serves 4)

1 head of celery, chopped into 3cm lengths

3 pears, cored and chopped into wedges

200g sprouting broccoli, the long stemmed stuff

150g stilton cheese, crumbled

300ml single cream

100g wholemeal breadcrumbs

Salt and Pepper

Olive oil

Method:

1. Boil the celery and broccoli for 3 minutes in two separate saucepans, drain all the water off them.

2. In a reasonably shallow pie dish lay out the pear wedges and season lightly with the salt and pepper, randomly position the celery and broccoli over the top and sprinkle the over the stilton. Pour over the cream evenly and then add the bread crumbs, finish with a small drizzle of oil on the crumbs and place in the middle of the oven for 25 minutes until the tops browns.

3. Plate up and season if needs be. It is possible to thicken the sauce by using double cream, mine was a vague attempt at lowering the calories.   

Friday Fish and Chips

Having recently returned from six months abroad, the final two of which were spent in India, I have been getting stuck into reacquainting myself with Great British foods. The kind of staples that embody the quintessence of old Blighty and only really taste great on home soil. 

When I was walking through the infuriatingly chaotic streets of Varanasi, Hinduism's holiest place and the setting for some pretty mind blowing religious devotion, I was accosted every step of the way by hawkers and street children trying to sell me something or get a commission out of me. The kids, all of whom are illiterate but speak several languages fluently, find out your country and hurl the relevant colloquialisms at you, almost every time as Brits we got "FISH AND CHIPS"! 

I thought of this yesterday when considering how to enable my fishy Friday and thought it would be a nice idea to chuck a bit of the east in there, hence the ginger, cumin seeds and chilli in the mix that are all brought together by the lemon zest and seasoning. Enjoy. 

   

Ingredients: (Serves 4)

Fish:

4 skinned cod fillets

Small bunch of finely chopped parsley

Tspn of cumin seeds

One medium red chilli, seeded and finely chopped

Zest of half a lemon

1 clove of garlic, crushed

Extra virgin olive oil

1cm of ginger, finely chopped

Salt and pepper

Beer Batter:

1 cup of plain flour

1 egg, beaten

1 garlic clove, crushed

½ tspn black pepper

Can of lager

Mushy Peas:

4 handfuls of fresh garden peas (frozen will do)

A handful of freshly picked mint, finely chopped

1 tablespoon of crème fraiche

A small knob of butter

Salt and pepper

Chips:

5 large potatoes, peeled and chopped into chips

Salt

Tartare Sauce:

300ml of Hellman’s mayonnaise

1 tablespoon of capers

6 pickled gherkins, roughly chopped

Small bunch of flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped

30g of anchovies, roughly chopped

Juice of ½ a lemon

Smoked paprika

2 litres of Vegetable oil for deep frying

Method:

1.Put the cod in a bowl and add all the ingredients from the fish section along with a dash of extra virgin olive oil, leave in the fridge to marinate for a couple of hours.

 2.
Boil the chips for 5 minutes in salted water until they begin to soften but still hold their shape, drain and set aside.

3. For the batter put the flour in a bowl and make a well, pour in the egg, garlic and pepper, and then the lager, stir it thoroughly till the batter reaches a smooth thick consistency and set aside.

4. For the tartare sauce put the mayonnaise in a bowl and add the capers, along with the remaining roughly chopped ingredients and the lemon juice, mix well and keep in the fridge. You can dust the top with paprika when you serve it.

5. Boil the kettle and cook the peas for 3 minutes until soft, transfer to a blender along with the crème fraiche, chopped mint and butter, and blend for a few seconds so it remains lumpy and not pureed. Season to taste.

6. Heat the vegetable oil in a large pan over a high heat until it is ready for frying, test it by chucking in a small piece of chip, if it starts to bubble aggressively then you’re ready to get frying. Carefully pour in the chips and cook them for around 10 minutes or until golden, using a slotted spoon transfer them to a plate with some kitchen cloth to drain the oil from them, toss in salt and keep warm.

7. Remove the fish from the fridge, dunk and cover in the batter and lower it carefully into the oil. Cook for between 7-10 minutes or until golden and crispy, remove, and drain on tissue paper before plating all the components together.

Rhubarb and Vanilla Ice Cream

I went out and bought an ice cream maker from ‘The Steamer Trading Company’ yesterday, my new favourite shop, I came out with several things that I hadn’t intended to buy but will nevertheless use. I then went on a walk with my little sister in search of some summer fruits to make my first ice cream ever a seasonal sensation, we made it as far as the vegetable patch twenty feet from the kitchen where we stumbled across the last rhubarb of the year ripe for the picking.

Recently I was fortunate enough to have a week’s work experience in the kitchen of the Michelin starred Petersham Nurseries in Richmond, and whilst there I was called upon to make a ‘Crème Anglaise’ (custard in layman’s terms) to act as the base for a delicious roasted fig ice cream. I had never made one before but fortunately help was at hand in the form of a friendly, but more importantly patient Irish chef named Jordan. It is to his credit that my ‘Crème Irlandaise’ was a success.

Ingredients:

Crème Anglaise-

6 egg yolks

1 pint double cream

½ pint whole milk

200g white sugar

1 vanilla pod, halved but NOT deseeded

Rhubarb-

500g of rhubarb, roughly chopped

80g white sugar

Small knob of butter

Mint and fudge cubes to garnish

Method:

1. Mix the egg yolks with the 200g of sugar a mix well.

2. Mix the milk and cream together, pour into a large pan, add vanilla pods and stir in a figure of 8 with a spatula over a low heat until warm but not too hot.

3. Add the sugar and egg mix in a steady stream and continue to stir for around 10 minutes, at this point you have to watch diligently as the consistency changes very quickly and if you over cook it the eggs will scramble. To test pull out the spatula and run a finger through the creamy residue, if the line where your finger was remains and doesn’t dribble it is ready. Quickly strain it through a sieve into a cool pan and chill in the fridge until cold.

4. Whilst the crème anglaise is cooling, chop the rhubarb into chunks and add to a frying pan over a medium to high heat with a small knob of butter. After a few minutes it should begin to soften, pour over 80g of sugar and mix it in so the rhubarb begins to caramelise. After 10 minutes the rhubarb should have turned into a mush, transfer to a blender and give it a couple of good whizzes before putting it in the fridge to cool.

5. Read the instructions on your ice cream maker to see how long it needs to chill, I had to stick mine in the deep freeze overnight. When it is ready and the rhubarb and crème anglaise are chilled, pour the latter into the compartment and churn for at least 20 minutes before adding the rhubarb mush and churning for a further 10. Scoop it out into a container and whack it in the freezer for a few hours until it reaches the desired consistency. Couple of dollops on the plate, fudge cubes and a sprig of mint and it’s ready to go.  

Classic Fish Pie

This is one of my absolute favourites and the first recipe on here because of it, my Mum has been cooking it for years and I'm pretty sure she got it from hers, who in turn got it from my Great Grandmother who probably learnt it the same way. My culinary genealogy doesn't stretch that far back unfortunately, so whether Mrs Beeton may have stuck her oar in at one point I'm not sure. Although I have checked the copy of 'Mrs Beeton's Everyday Cookbook' on my shelf at home given to my Great Grandmother by her Grandmother for Christmas (To My darling Connie, From Grandma Xmas 1928), and the recipe seems very different indeed -

Ingredients - 1 lb each of cold fish and mashed potatoes, 2 eggs, 1 tablespoon of breadcrumbs, 4 oz of finely chopped suet, enough milk to reduce the mixture to the consistency of very thick batter, salt and pepper.

Method - Chop fish coarsely, mix it with the potatoes and suet, add a liberal seasoning of salt and pepper, the eggs and milk, and beat well. Turn in a greased pie dish, and cook in a moderate oven for about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours. Serve in the dish in which it is baked.

Time - About 2 hours. Sufficient for 6-7 persons.  

83 years later and the recipe couldn't be more different, more ingredients, less time, and hopefully much tastier now that I've added a few bits of my own.

Ingredients: (Serves 6) 

Smoked Haddock Fillet

Salmon Fillet

Cod Fillet (1 lb of fish pie mix from the Deli will do it) 

12 King Prawns, ready cooked and shelled

3 eggs (2 hard boiled)

5 Medium size Potatoes for Mashing

1 Leek, roughly chopped

125g Mature Farmhouse Cheddar, grated

40ml Double Cream

450ml Semi Skimmed Milk

75g Salted Butter

80g Plain Flour

1 tspn Nutmeg, ground

1/2 tspn Cinnamon, ground

Salt and Pepper

Method:

1. Peel the potatoes, chop them into halves and put them in a pan with cold, salted water and bring them to the boil over a high heat. When the water is hot enough throw in a couple of the eggs for five minutes to hard boil them and save water. 

2. While the Potatoes are cooking chop the leeks roughly, cover with pre-boiled water and cook for 5 minutes until softened. Drain and set aside.

    

3. In a pie dish lay out the cubed fish mix and prawns evenly and give a couple of turns of black pepper.

4. To make the White Sauce (Roux) put a saucepan over a medium heat and melt 50g of the butter until it has all become liquid, add the 80g of plain flower and mix together using a whisk. It should turn thick and lumpy, when this happens pour in a little of the milk and whisk gently till it thickens. Continue to do this until you have a thick smooth sauce and have used all of the milk. 

5. Keep the white sauce over a medium heat and mix in 100g of the Cheddar until it has melted, then add the leeks and the hard boiled eggs, shelled and cut into 8 wedges, along with a tspn of ground nutmeg. Stir thoroughly and pour over the fish.

6. When the potatoes are cooked strain them and return to the pan, add the remaining butter, cream, egg (the heat from the potatoes will cook the raw egg) and a few turns of salt and pepper and 1/2 a tspn of cinnamon. Mash well and cover the fish, spreading evenly with a fork. 

7. Pre-heat the oven to 220 degrees Centigrade and cook for 20 minutes, remove and sprinkle the remaining cheese and a little nutmeg and return to the oven for a further 5 minutes until the cheese is melted and the pie is golden. Garnish with a little parsley and serve piping hot with ketchup. I don't have the sauce with much, but it belongs with this pie.