Showing posts with label scotch eggs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scotch eggs. Show all posts
Posted by
linda
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On Sunday a delegation from HH HQ hit Cambridge, on a mission!
Tipped off by Harriet, who had previously attended Rachel's stoneware day course, four of us eagerly set off at a very civilised 8.45am to travel to Rachel Dormor's Cambridge Studio for a porcelain handbuilding workshop.
Rachel's beautiful work greeted us as we entered her studio - amid welcoming wafts of freshly brewed coffee.
After introductions and a brief round table explanation of our previous clay experiences (most of which hark back to our school days) we began..........Rachel started by explaining the basics and giving us all what looked like a camembert to work with. Our weapon of choice: a rolling pin!
Rachel has the most beautiful set of printer's letters which I couldn't wait to delve into...once I had made something to impress them into!
How pretty are these little ceramic stamps too?
Our first 'creation' was a handbuilt porcelain jug. It was a little tricky to get it to stand on it's own but with a little help and encouragement from Rachel, it was there. The pattern is acheived with embossed fresco wallpaper! We also all did a vase or jug using a former to wrap the porcelain around too.
Here's the class results: How amazing that we all did the same thing but ended up with so many wonderful variations. With them safely stowed ready for firing, Rachel advised us to stop for some lunch. The morning had just whizzed by.
As ever at HH, lunch is a carefully planned affair. We had Nic's homemade scotch eggs - made fresh that morning, falafel, Sam's homemade hummus, bread, olives and sundried tomatoes. Washed down with my homemade elderflower cordial and followed by a fantastic array of cakes baked by Kay (Lady Galula Eclectic Cakes) and kindly supplied by Harriet! Yum! Sorry that the pic is on the "huh"!!
Feeling very full, we packed away the picnic knowing that we had the afternoon to create away using the techniques we'd learned in the morning. Having seen Rachel's article for espresso cups in Making Magazine, I just had to have a go. And, I just had to use the letters too! OK, so they are a little tall for espresso cups! 
Fingers crossed that they survive intact! Though I'm not sure I will ever bring myself to make them dirty! It was a fab day - we did so much in a day and Rachel was a brilliant and inspiring teacher. It was lovely to have such a creative day surrounded by friends and fellow creatives.I even made Rory a little "woof" ceramic star in celebration of his little win at the local dog show at our village Midsummer Fayre on Saturday. He came third in the puppy class! There were some beautiful puppies there - all shapes and sizes and numbering in excess of 20 I would say. So I was pretty proud puppy owner!
As usual, Rory looks pretty non-plussed about the whole affair!
Hope you enjoyed a creative Midsummer weekend.
As usual, Rory looks pretty non-plussed about the whole affair!
Hope you enjoyed a creative Midsummer weekend.Jacqui x
Posted by
linda
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By now you will have (hopefully!) seen our beautiful book A Green Guide To Country Crafts published by CICO Books Ltd. and chock full of gorgeous photographs by Gavin Kingcome (pictured above) all taken around the lovely part of the world that we are so lucky to live in!We had a lot of fun during the photo shoots and made the most of the brilliant beach and picnic projects - essential for any picnic is the scotch egg!
I started making these as a way to use up a lot of eggs and was inspired to do so by my mate Maria Matthews, she quite often adds herbs to her sausagemeat but I leave it plain - the instructions here are my quick and easy adaptations to many online and printed recipes...you may have to jiggle the timings a bit as I get giant eggs from my ex-battery hens and teeny eggs from Button and Zsazsa the Silkies!
Jane Southgate - textile artist - and I got together to do some dyeing and whilst the rhubarb leaves were cooking we made a couple of these for our lunch - so here we go!
Boil your eggs
I use my little and very old Le Creuset pan that I got from the Sue Ryder shop next door...
About 6 - 8 minutes should give you a good yolk but as Jane and I were eating them straightaway we soft boiled them for runny ones! Take them out of the boiling water and sling them straight into a big bowl or sink of very cold water - if you get the timing right you wont get that grey line around the yolk...
Roll the peeled eggs in some flour seasoned with salt and pepper and set aside while you get on with the crispy, crunchy crumbs...Blitz some old bread in a food processor and then toast them, I use a big griddle pan for this.
Watch them and keep turning them - I usually have to do this stage twice as I get distracted by a cake or knitting blog...
Grab your sausage meat - quarter of a pound for big eggs - squash it flat and wrap it right round, you don't want holes and dampening your hands first will make it easier to do!
Get a couple of eggs and beat 'em up! Rolling the sausagemeat wrapped eggs in beaten egg makes all those scrummy crumbs stick on fast and then you should end up with something like this!
Deep fry in some sunflower oil for about 8 minutes...being very careful and taking all the usual warnings about deep fat frying into consideration etc.
Turn them carefully and frequently so that they are evenly cooked and gorgeously golden brown!
Ta da!
Absolutely the best thing to do with eggs and they will make grown men weep with joy! Knitters, artists, cake makers and photographers are pretty keen on them too...
with love from Nic x
