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

Friday Night Feast of Fun: The Toby Carvery for us

Robert Walpole, 2nd Earl of Orford (1701u20131751) by Jacques-Antoine Dassier is licensed under CC-CC0 1.0

For us, one of the most delicious moments in television ever came in Simon Schama‘s 2000 series The History of Britain. It recreated a moment in the working day of out first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole as he attempted to bend the will of his latest Whig MP to the correct ends for Party and Country.1] And how did he do it? With a tasty dinner of English food at its best.of course! Roast meat. Roast potatoes. Yorkshire puddings. Vegetables like peas, carrots, parsnips- the best products of our deep and fertile soils, then beginning a new Agricultural Revolution. All washed down with the finest claret, glasses uncounted. It was until quite recently our main food, our only food really, topped off with various puddings made from quintessentially English things like apples, plums and creams. It’s still served today , from very expensive restaurants and snooty Fulham pubs all the way down to humble local ale houses. And deep, deep, down, in the very heart of our English souls. it’s still our very favourite best.

But where to get it? Any day of the week, served impeccably and with the best of good cheer? Well, at the risk of ostracism from some members of our social circle, we are going to recommend a Toby Carvery. [2] It’s cheap. It’s unpretentious. Some of your fellow diners may be a tad rough around the edges. You have to go up to the carvery counter to get your dinner But there are advantages. One: there is always a bar in a Toby, to get that authentic Whig-Tory Parliamentarian style experience going. Two You still have a server at your table, who in our experience are always among the most cheerful down to earth type you will encounter Three: going up to get your grub conveys several advantages: you can grab as much as you want, you can choose from the joints (there will always be beef, pork, gammon and a turkey). If you know the chef, you can always wheedle and creep your way to toothsome extra bits. and if you are on a health gig you can always cut out the potatoes and yorkshires, and cleave to lean meats and all the vegetables you need, Four, back at the table the server will still attend with all the wine refills that you, your companion or Sir Robert himself could wish for. Five we find some of the dessert items such as the ice creams and crumbles almost dangerously addictive. And at the end of the day you will pay a price, including tip which would buy you barely a starter and a glass of water in certain establishments which those who claim to have more refined tastes have forced us to attend from time to time.

And to all of those who clutch their pearls at our brazenly proletarian choice-:”you find somewhere better, mate!”

Editorial note: the writer of this piece was some time ago placed on a strict diet, and his penned this largely from memories. Happy memories.

[1]https://watchdocumentaries.com/a-history-of-britain/?video_index=9 see especailly 20-25

[2]https://www.tobycarvery.co.uk/menus/carverymenu#/

#roast dinner #sir robert walpole #english cooking

Friday Night Feast of Fun: Curry

We once asked an old soldier of the British Army, who had served in India during the Second World War: “So, did you go out down the local restaurant for a curry and lager on your nights off?” To which he replied with a blank “No.” Why did we ask that question, and why did we expect a contrary answer? To answer it is to delve deep into history and the immense cultural changes which only food can describe.

By the 1980s,when we asked, going out to your local Indian Restaurant for a curry and lager (see below) was the default eating position for most younger inhabitants of these islands. How did a nation famous for fish, chips, roast beef and Yorkshire puddings so thoroughly convert its taste buds to what their grandfathers had thought alien and strange? The answers lie deep in out Imperial History. Old India hands, Company men, Army men, and their memsahibs brought back a taste bud memory from their days of service. Curries appeared in restaurants and cookbooks as early as the 18th century. Veeraswamy[1] opened in Regent Street in 1926 [1]and has survived to this day. The real boom came with South Asian immigration after world war two.(there were many Pakistanis and Bangladeshis alongside the Indians) Hungry immigrants brought their restaurants; and the natives appreciated at least this aspect of the new culture. although they were less welcoming on other matters. Generally speaking, curry is now the UKs national dish, at least for eating out.

For the benefit of overseas readers, we append a list of ten typical favourites , courtesy of the excellent Plyvine Catering website[2] Some of us still find certain dishes too hot and spicy: beginners may like to try milder forms like Korma. Others, like students indulge in macho who-can-eat-the-hottest? competitions, with sometimes hilarious results. And to drink? It has to be lager. “!It’s not a real curry without lager!” is the indignant cry from the poshest West End serveries down to the smallest family undertaking in the the most obscure provincial town. Fortunately Indian technology has come up with two very palatable varieties: Cobra and Kingfisher, which are perfectly capable of both refreshing the palate and conveying that authentic subcontinental vibe

Indian food, like Indian culture and business acumen, is spreading world wide. Perhaps a curry house will be the first restaurant to open on the Moon. It might be a very worthy choice..

[1]https://www.bing.com/alink/link?url=https%3a%2f%2fwww.veeraswamy.com%2f&source=serp-local&h=Ws1QKz5L6y3meRBbkMNxwx0DKcJGs59sEQqcvf7Yd5I%3d&p=l

[2]https://plyvinecatering.co.uk/the-uks-10-most-popular-curry-dishes/

#curry #india #UK #restaurant #lager #take away #dine out