It was Himself’s birthday a couple of weeks ago so of course
a three course meal was on the cards. I
needed it to be fairly simple as I’ve been a little under the weather, but
awesome anyway. The first hurdle in my
grand plans was that Himself’s birthday was on football training night, would
he sacrifice football for food? The question was presented. The answer that came back in short order was ‘yes’
but then he had to arrange an alternative coach (alas, he also coaches said
team). So he called a mate and explained. With much disgust on their part they
responded...
“What do you mean you can’t come?”
“Well, the wife said she was cooking me birthday dinner so
training is out”
“Oh, under the thumb are we?”
“Is it any different in your house?”
The sound of crickets greeted him…
“Thought so – well, enjoy training, see you on Saturday”
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| Truffled fadge, bacon and eggs |
But enough about Himself, back to me. I decided that for something really fun I’d
made a teeny tiny Ulster Fry to start with, truffled fadge (Irish potato bread –
usually not truffled but if you can’t improve on perfection what’s the point of
cooking?), soft boiled quail eggs and Flying Pig maple bacon. To make fadge you start with mashed potato,
mix in butter (or in my case truffle oil), salt and flour until your mix
becomes soft dough. Knead and roll out
into little rounds. Cut the rounds into
six or eight pie shaped pieces, depending on how big (or small) they are and
then cook in some oil in a frypan until golden.
Here’s the trick though. You have
to let them cool down completely and then they need to be re-fried again just
before serving. Apparently it’s just not
the same otherwise. As I wanted to lean
the bacon across the fadge at a jaunty angle I needed it to be flat, SO in the
interests of attractiveness I cooked the bacon in the oven between two baking
sheets until they were crispy (and flat).
I cooked the quail eggs for 2 min 30 seconds (for a soft boil) and put
them straight into cold water so they stopped cooking. Fried up the fadge then placed it all
artfully on a plate with dots of HP Sauce down the side. It was a huge winner – Himself loved the
fadge (I have had fadge failures in the past, so high praise indeed) and it
made for a quirky starter.
 |
| Brown and remove the lamb |
For the main, a simple slow cooked lamb was on the cards,
maximum flavour for minimal effort. A
big family favourite is a Gordon Ramsey Slow Cooked Lamb Shanks recipe, but as
lamb shanks appear to be the ‘new black’ the cost has shot up along with
demand. So I decided to be sneaky and
use neck instead. It cooks up exactly
the same, and while you don’t get the nice white bone for show, if you slip the
meat off the bone when it’s cooked and serve it in its syrupy sauce no-one’s
the wiser ;-) tastes the same and half the price.
 |
| Cook up the vegies then return the lamb with wine and stock - cook 3 hours |
So I cooked up the meat and served it with a white bean mash. I think, on reflection, that some crusty bread would have been a great crunchy, textural addition but in the interests of eating three courses I didn’t think we needed the extra filler. Of course the family agreed about the lack of texture (great, Greg and John are back) but were also very interested in scoffing dessert so didn’t complain too loudly.
 |
| Macerating the strawberries |
Dessert was Himself’s favourite – pavlova! And a simple
pavlova indeed, individual nests with macerated strawberries and cream. Devine
and deceptively simple – make up your meringue mix (I have a secret ingredient
to make mine uber delicious – don’t ask, it’s my secret and the guarantee of a
long and happy marriage) and bake. Quarter
the strawberries and macerate in lemon juice and caster suger for several
hours. Just before serving add a slosh
of red wine (I left the wine out for the Wee Girl’s – not that you can taste it
but she’s a bit of a nanna when it comes to things like that) and some freshly
whipped cream. I’ve stopped buying
thickened cream now, I only go with the single cream, it doesn’t take long to
whip and doesn’t contain weird stuff like gelatine – just saying.
Anyhoo, huge success, they all loved it - yet another home
run by Team FBJ.
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