Feast of Fun: The classic Easter Sunday Roast

Instead if a Friday Feast of Fun, the opportunity to cover an Easter Sunday Lunch was just too mouth-wateringly good to pass up. Frankly, we prefer it to Christmas. It’s less boozy, the food’s lighter with less compulsory extras like puddings and unwanted family members, to name but two, and of course the weather’s better. There’ll be more about why we like Easter in the next blog. In the meantime here are our tips for a very special easter lunch, absolutely in the English style.

Pre dinner drinks: Easter is the time at which it is at last legal and permitted to break out the Pimms, that quintessential English cocktail mixer. Here is our recipe (for one person)from an old blog in 2021, but it works just as well today

Take one measure of Pimm’s No.1 Cup and and add to a highball glass. (Ours have real Pimms logos!) Add 3-4 ice cubes, then 2 slices of lemon, two slices of orange and one chopped strawberry and one slice of cucumber. Top up with lemonade and decorate with a sprig of mint or borage, if you can find the latter.

Entreé We always recommend going light and simple. Salmon or trout, cold with a few olives are good options. For the fish allergic, a nice cold cured meat, perhaps an Iberian Ham or French Saucisson go down well and can sit alongside the Pimms, if you don’t want to sozzle your guests with an early white wine.

Main Course We have been known to serve chicken, and to have served it well. But in these islands Lamb is the traditional centre piece for Easter Sunday. Roast that is, and served up with potatoes and the best spring vegetables. For years we swore by leg. It’s a great joint, and can be made to work more if you have a large number of guests. But once, a little financially embarrassed in Waitrose in Kingston Upon Thames we took the advice of their Meat Man, and tried shoulder, which in theory is the cheaper cut. Frankly, we have never looked back-there are extra levels of flavour and texture which even the best shoulders struggle to match. So to be fair, here are two recipes, both from the BBC which will give you more than a fighting chance of turning out a really memorable experience for your guests

Leg: Mike Robinson https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/roastlegoflambwithga_90252

Shoulder: Mary Berry https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/slow_roast_shoulder_lamb_92930

Dessert We could write three blogs here, and that’s only on what’s available from the supermarket. If you’ve treated them well with the first courses, your guests may not want too much. Something to do with strawberries, raspberries and cream might suffice, backed with a range of strong, simple cheeses. Dare we put in a word for some of our rarer British specials like Lancashire, Caerphilly, Wensleydale and Double Gloucester?

Wine At least, on to the serious part of the blog. So-Red, or White? Fortunately we have found a great site called Unravelling Wine, where you can weigh a range of possibilities-Rioja, Chianti, Bordeaux, they seem to have thought of every possible pairing, with all the tasting notes you’ll need. https://unravelingwine.com/lamb-wine-pairing/

Post Prandial Liqueurs The usual. Brandy. Port. Madeira. Strong Coffee. You know the sort of thing. If you have done your work well, your guests should not be too fussy by this stage.

Well, gentle readers we hope that is enough, and more than enough, to ensure that you, your family, your guests and your servants enjoy a real easter blow-out. It was fun writing it, because being on the most savage diet, we are unable to sample any of the delicacies above, even cursorily. But we used to; and that was fun too, while it lasted.

#roast dinner #easter #food #wine

Our Choice for Easter: JS Bach, St John Passion

You don’t have to follow the Christian eschatology to realise that “easter” has a far deeper meaning which predates the birth of Jesus by millennia. Fans of The Golden Bough will recall that legends of the Reborn- God- in- Spring, are almost universal among people who live and farm across the northern hemisphere, and have been ever since the Neolithic. The sense of renewal after a hard winter, and the hope of fresh beginnings, address something extremely deep in the human psyche.

Bach‘s great Easter oratorios, the St Matthew Passion and the St John Passion speak to this sensibility as well as any work of art we know. Bach wrote the St John Passion in 1724. Like many such works, it was revised and cut many times, not least by the composer himself. The versions we hear now are are result of centuries of study, and of course the early music revival of the 1980s, when period instruments and orchestrations were rediscovered and tried out.

This year we have chosen the St John Passion as, frankly, we are a bit St Matthewed-out. So it is wonderful to try to understand a fresher set of rhythms and harmonies from a master artist, and relate them to Bach’s sense of the universal, creed-jumping essence of this work. Of course, we would not dare to tell you which bits to like, nor why. For one thing, we lack the musical knowledge. But we really liked the opening prologue, Herr, unser Herrscher, and we hope you will too. And meanwhile wish all of you a happy Easter, or whatever you call this break, and hope the world improves as the summer opens before us.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_John_Passion

[2]https://www.udiscovermusic.com/classical-features/bach-st-john-passion/

#JS Bach #St John Passion #Easter #Neolithic #belief #christianity #music

Why Easter is a time for understanding- a message from the Board

Once again we share one of our management to staff communiques, which we believe are a model for other companies and organisations

Now, it’s come to our attention that there have been certain ill-disguised whisperings and feelings about the staff leave arrangements for this Easter Bank Holiday weekend. Specifically-how come only the Editorial Board get Thursday afternoon off? The answer is both simple and complicated.

Firstly, the Thursday before Easter (Maundy Thursday) is an ancient time hallowed custom. So someone has to have time off. Obviously it can’t be everybody , as our productivity figures, already low, would just fall through the floor. So the Board got in consultants, who came up with a scheme based on geography, finance and above all peoples’ real needs. And this is how it works out.

Most of you it turns out live within 5 or ten miles of this building. OK, a couple of you trundle in from places like Kingston or Haywards Heath, but its really not too far to get way when the weekend begins, is it? Whereas we on the Board have our holiday homes in amazingly far-flung places. The Cotswolds. Perigord. Even Tuscany. Of course we need that extra time to get to the airport. And what about at the other end, we have to get to that shop in the village, the one that does that marvellous olive bread, and check the wine cellar, or the weekend’s half-gone. Whereas you lot, in some pub in Croydon-well you’re right on top of it as you stumble out of your little flats.

Each of us needs to understand other people and their different needs and pressures. Clearly we on the Board have somewhat different needs to the rest of you. Easter is a time of understanding. And with the annual salary reviews coming up, we hope you will understand once again.