Tag: British Food


Aug
2024

Cheddar Scotch Eggs

categories: 1970's food, 1970's recipes, 500 Recipes for Quick Meals, Eggs, England

Hey friends! Today, I’m diving into a classic recipe: Cheddar Scotch Eggs. This little gem hails from 500 Recipes for Quick and Easy Meals by Marguerite Patten (1972).

I’ve got a confession: Scotch Eggs are one of those foods I adore eating but dread making. Remember the Pakistani version, the Nargisi Kofta,  I made back in 2019? It was a culinary delight, but let’s face it, Scotch Eggs are a lot of work!  Who wants to deal with the mess of a deep fryer just for one meal? It’s like running a marathon for a single slice of pizza! 

Scotch eggs are however, quite lovely eaten cold, which makes making a big batch worthwhile as you can enjoy meals for a few days!  They are also amazing picnic food so if you are contemplating an al fresco meal in the near future, these could be your go-to dish! 

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Ahem, I hear you say.  That looks exactly like a regular Scotch Egg. Where’s the extra cheese you promised? Scotch Eggs are already laborious enough to make, but this version takes things to a new level. You cut the eggs in half, remove the yolks, and mix them with cheese. Then, you reassemble the eggs and proceed with the normal Scotch Egg process..   You can see the split in the eggs where they where cut through in the close up photo below. 

What Are Scotch Eggs?

But maybe I should pause here in case some of my readers are unfamiliar with the concept of a Scotch Egg.

First thing.  They are not from Scotland.  They were invented by Fortnum and Mason the very posh department store in Picadilly in London in 1738.  The term scotch comes from adding anchovies to the meat to cut through the fattiness of the meat and to give it a stronger flavour.  

Second, they are an egg, wrapped in a meat casing and then crumbed and fried. 

Cheddar Scotch Egg

Cheddar Scotch Eggs – The Recipe

Cheddar Scotch Eggs recipe4 (1)

 

Cheddar Scotch Eggs 4

Have a great week!

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Nov
2022

Rhubarb and Rosé Syllabub

categories: Desserts, England, Rhubarb

I was doing some reading the other day and, no, not an Agatha Christie, even though I am about half way through Hercule Poirot’s Christmas for the next Dining with The Dame.  I was reading some poetry (because in my head I am the cool intellectual girl who reads untranslated  French poetry whilst drinking black coffee at a cool café in the hippest arrondissement in Paris).

In reality I was likely lying on my couch in dirty  sweatpants, shoving salt and vinegar chips into my face.  Regardless of the setting though, whilst I was reading came I across a poem by Edith Sitwell called “When Sir Beelzebub”  The opening lines of which are

When
Sir
Beelzebub called for his syllabub
in the hotel in Hell
Where Proserpine first fell,
Blue as the gendarmerie were the
waves of the sea,

Which got me thinking…why aren’t there more poems about dessert? And why have I never made a syllabub? I’m still waiting for an answer on the first question. But as for the second?

No trip to hell required!

What is Syllabub?

Syllabub is a gorgeous British dessert which originated in the 16th century.  It is a whipped cream dessert, originally flavoured with sweet wine or cider.  My version uses rosé as the wine and pairs the rosé flavoured cream with a rhubarb and rosewater  compote.

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I really like the word syllabub.  It sounds so slinky and smooth.  But with a  hint of bite with that last b.  Which pretty much describes the syllabub.  The silky smooth cream has a little kick of rosé and the rhubarb compote is tangy with hints of orange and rose.  Layer it into your prettiest vintage glasses so you can see the contrast of the cream against deep crimson rhubarb.

It also looks very pretty when you put your spoon in and the layers get all mixed up and marbled.  Maybe I have been reading too many Agatha Christie’s but my first thought was a rather macabre “like blood in the snow”!  😂  I could totally imagine Miss Marple eatiing syllabub too!

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Print

Rhubarb and Rosé Syllabub

Rhubarb and Rose Syllabub4
Print Recipe

A delightful English dessert of poached rhubarb with a rosé flavoured cream.

Ingredients

Scale

For the Rhubarb Compote:

  • 500g of rhubarb, cut into bit sized pieces
  • 100g caster sugar
  • Juice and Zest of 1 orange
  • 1/2–1 tsp rosewater

For The Cream:

  • 175g rosé wine
  • 80g caster sugar
  • 200ml whipping cream

Garmish:

  • Strawberries (optional)
  • Flaked Almonds (optional)

 

Instructions

For the Compote:

  • Place rhubarb, sugar, orange juice and zest into a saucepan.
  • Add rosewater to taste (please see note below).
  • Cook over medium heat until the rhubarb is soft but is keeping it’s shape.  If the mixture starts to stick you can add a tablespoon or so of water but you don’t want the rhubarb mixture to be too wet.
  • Allow to cool

For the Cream

  • Add the rosé and sugar to a small saucepan and bring to the boil, over a high heat stirring occasionally.  Reduce the heat and allow the mix to reduce by a third.
  • Allow to cool.
  • Whip the cream to stiff peaks.
  • Fold in the rose mixture.
  • Layer the rhubarb and cream mixtures into a glass.
  • Top with a strawberry and some flaked almonds for crunch!

 

 

Notes

Rosewater can be overpowering.  Start with half a teaspoon before cooking the rhubarb and add more after cooking if you want to boost the flavour.

 

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A Very Brief Side Note on Edith Sitwell

Edith Sitwell, the writer of “When Sir Beelzebub” was a fascinating woman.  Six foot tall, she had a distinctive dress style – turbans and the most amazing jewellery.  She was also an innovative poet.  One of her poems, Gold Coast Customs was written in jazz rhythms and she wrote a wrote poems to music in a show called Facade which was performed behind a curtain pained with a face.  The words were read through a megaphone via a hole in the mouth.  (This to me sounds very Mighty Booshy…I wonder if they might have been inspired by her.  

She was also not one to mince words and had some scathing things to say about people including the critic F.R Leavis (For those fans of Bridget Jones out there Yes, “the F.R. Leavis who died in 1978.”) whom she called a “a tiresome, whining, pettyfogging little pipsqueak”.  She also called D.H. Lawrence a “a plaster gnome on a stone toadstool in some suburban garden”.   So in 1953, some bright spark had the idea for Dame Sitwell to interview Marilyn Monroe, assuming, oif course that they would hate each other and the Sitwell’s scathing critique of Monroe would create a commotion and of course increase circulation!

I’m sure, much to the chagrin of a features editor, the two liked each other!

via The Guardian

 

The meeting between the two occurred in the Sunset Tower in Hollywood which is certainly not a hotel in hell!  I wonder if they might have eaten some syllabub!

Have a great week!

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Feb
2021

Fish and Chips – The Seven Dials Mystery

categories: Dining With The Dame, England, Fish

Hello crime readers and food lovers!  Today we are eating some fish and chips with Dame Agatha.  And discussing The Seven Dials Mystery.  This book could best be described as a caper – I thought it was a really fun romp of a read.  The book features Lady Eileen Brent (aka Bundle) and Inspector Battle who we first met in The Secret of Chimneys.  I very much liked Bundle in the Secret of Chimneys and I like her even more in this one!  She is mostly fearless, smart and funny – my kind of heroine!

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The Seven Dials Mystery – The Plot

Chimneys is being rented to Sir Oswald and Lady Croote who are hosting a house party.  One of the guests, Gerry Wade is a chronic oversleeper much to the dismay of Lady Croote.  Gery’s habitual lateness is putting strain in the running of the house.   His friends decide to sneak 8 alarm clocks into Gerry’s room all set to go off at different times of the morning in the hope that the resulting cacophony will get the sleepyhead up at a decent hour.  The clocks go off but Gerry does not wake up.  Then or ever.  Gerry has been murdered!  And weirdly enough, there are now only 7 alarm clocks in his room…

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On top of a missing clock and a dead body we have

  • Mysterious references to The Seven Dials in hidden letters and on the lips of a dying man
  • Another murder – by gunshot this time
  • Seedy nightclubs in a London area called Seven Dials
  • Secret letters
  • Shady Russians,
  • Sinister secret societies of seven who wear masks  of clock faces
  • Stolen chemical formulae
  • And a marriage proposal for Bundle!

The Covers

There is not much variety in the covers for this book.  Nearly all of then feature clocks of some sort.   I like the image of the burning gloves but my favourite is the very are deco looking version (bottom left and below. The  back of this cover also contains an image of Bundle’s reckless driving which features in the story.

Seven Dials Collage

Note the above version of The Seven Dials Mystery will set you back a cool £819 GBP so maybe not one for most of us!  At the other end of the spectrum, you can get the Tom Adams cover version on Ebay for $1 AUD  at the moment.

The Recipe – Fish and Chips

Full disclosure here.  I was getting myself into a bit of a tizzy about this meal.  I have one deep fryer which meant that either the fish was going to get cold while I cooked the chips or vice versa.  My solution was to make the fish as per the recipe below but to use frozen oven fries.

Second disclosure. I would normally never make fish and chips at home – to me, this is a meal best eaten as a take away ideally by the seaside.

I used  John Dory as my fish because that is the fish used by our favourite pub fish and chips.  In Seven Dials, they would traditionally use cod.

I added some dill and a little homegrown horseradish into my tartare as well as all the ingredients listed in the recipe.

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“Where did everyone go?”

“To the Seven Dials Club of course, ” said Bill, staring.  “Wasn’t that what you were asking about”

“I didn ‘t know it by that name,” said Bundle.

“Used to be a slummy sort of district round about Tottenham Court Road way.  It’s all pulled down and cleaned up now.  But the Seven Dials Club keeps to the old atmosphere.  Fried fish and chips.  General squalor.”

Agatha Christie, The Seven Dials Mystery

Fish and Chips Recipe (2

Other Food Mentioned in The Seven Dials Mystery

The next book, if you are reading along, is Murder at the Vicarage.  Yes, March will bring our very first Miss Marple murder mystery!  

 

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Oct
2019

Use By: Roast Vegetable Bubble and Squeak

categories: England, Great Name, Leftovers, Roast Vegetables, Use By

What can you do with a load of leftover roast veggies?  Make one of the best-named dishes ever – Bubble and Squeak!  Bubble and Squeak is a British recipe which is traditionally made from the leftovers from the traditional Sunday roast.  It is supposedly called Bubble and Squeak due to the noises made during the cooking process.  I think this last bit may be apocryphal.  My Bubble and Squeak neither bubbled or squeaked.  It was totally delicious though!

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So what’s it all about Alfie?  Given the Britishness of this dish, feel free to use your best Michael Caine cockney voice as you read that too!

Well, get your leftovers – I had some Ottlolenghi Harissa Potatoes and some Brussels Sprouts. You can use pretty much whatever veg you have as long as you have one that can be mashed up.  Mashed potato will also work a treat in this.

 

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Mash up your veggies and add a beaten egg.  The rest is up to you. Add some of your chopped up leftover roast if you like, throw in some herbs or some cheese.  Add some chill or a dollop of mustard.  Be as fancy or as simple as you like.  I kept these pretty simple, just the veggies and egg because the potatoes already had some harissa and spice seasoning.

When you are ready, pan fry your Bubble and Squeaks  to make delicious patties.  These are delicious as a side dish, make a great vegetarian burger patty or are good just by themselves.

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Topped Bubble and Squeak

My favourite way to eat Bubble and Squeak is to pan-fry the little cakes until they are all crispy and brown on the outside and then top them with all sorts of delish things.  These are one of my go-to’s for lunch (or breakfast) when I am working from home.

Breakfast Bubbles

No, I’m not talking about champagne although, having just come back from Europe where a glass of sparkling is de rigueur with your brekkie I’m totally on board with bubbles in the AM.  Hmm…if you had some sparkling wine with your breakfast Bubble and Sqeak I guess that’s double bubble!

Bubble and Squeak with an egg makes a for a super breakfast.  You could pan fry some bacon as you heat the bubble and squeak if you wanted to have some meat but I like to have mine just with egg.  Grilled cheese on top of your B&S is another delicious breakfast option.

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Lunchtime Squeaks

Come lunchtime, I like to top my Bubble and Squeak with some chilli labneh and pickled red cabbage or hummus and tomato salsa as per the top picture.

I love the combination of the crispy roast veggies, the creaminess of the yoghurt and the bite of pickle!

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Bubble and Squeak can become quite addictive and now I routinely cook extra veg just so I can have them over the next few days!

Here’s a recipe but feel free to experiment as you wish with herbs, condiments etc.  My version does not include cheese in the mix but, if you were going to add it, you could play around with different types.  Having said that, now I desperately want to have Bubble and Squeak with some blue cheese crumbled through it!!!

Tell me, what is your favourite way of using up roasted veg?

Have a great week!

 

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