A Iwo s ge r ■• kl f
Some like it hottish
It is the Epiphany today as I am writing. I've just been to High Mass on my motor-bike in the middle of a snowstorm, very terrifying, couldn't see much and a tendency to skid, luckily not many cars about so arrived safely and was rewarded by a glorious Mass in G by good old Schubert at the London Oratory. Home now unscathed and am about to reheat a thumping great goulash, just the thing for such a day. Here it is.
Tokay goulash.
2 lbs leg of pork (or shoulder) 1 tin 14 oz Italian tomatoes (more flavour than fresh) 1 lb onions 1 green pepper (capsicum not chilli) 3 oz lard or good dripping 1/2 oz each of hot paprika and sweet paprika 2 tablespoons of plain flour Salt 1 pint stock 6 fluid oz dry vermouth Bouquet garni and 2 cloves of garlic 1/2 pint sour cream 1 lb small potatoes.
Slice the onions and the green pepper, brown them in dripping in a big frying pan. Have the pork ready cut into 11/2-inch cubes. Mix the flour and the two paprikas in a plastic bag, then shake the meat in the bag a little at a time to coat all the cubes evenly. Remove onions and peppers from the fat and deposit in a good heavy casserole in which the whole thing will be cooked. Turn the heat up under the frying pan to brown the meat quickly,. turning the while to seal all sides. Add it to the vegetables, putting the casserole over the heat. Stir in the tomatoes, chopped garlic and vermouth, bring to simmering point, let it simmer for five minutes, then add enough stock to cover the contents, shove the bouquet garni (parsley stalks, bay leaf, thyme and four crushed juniper berries) into the middle, season with good salt, cover and put in a preheated oven at Gas 2, 320F. 154C. for about one and a half hours 'It's like a sieve. or until the meat is quite tender. After an hour's cooking add the parboiled potatoes to the casserole. When ready stir in the sour cream and serve immediately; alterna- tively dollop the cream on the goulash when already on the plate. I rather prefer it that way, the texture is so delicious.
I should serve this dish with cabbage. Get one of those tightly wrapped pale green ones (called white) weighing from one to two pounds (or you can buy them in halves nowadays). They are so dense .they would fell any amount of muggers if swung in a string bag round the head; the evi- dence cpuld then be eaten like Mr Dahl's leg of lamb. Cut the cabbage in half, remove the hard core and slice fairly finely. In a saucepan melt 1 oz butter and two tablespoons of olive oil, mix in the cab- bage, coating all over with the oils, also add some crushed fennel seeds or caraway unless you hate them. Stew gently for 20 minutes until it is cooked as you want it, add salt and pepper. All it needs is the occasional stir and a cover — don't add any water as it has plenty of its own.
This is a very quick egg dish for Nicholas Coleridge and other bachelors. Put a car- ton of potted shrimps (large or small depending on whether you have a guest) into a frying pan, melt gently, adding -quarter of a pint of thick cream. Bring to a gentle bubble, then break two eggs per person into it; season with salt and a tiny powdering of cayenne pepper, cover and cook for about a minute until the whites have set. Eat with brown toast. Extremely good!
For an incredibly easy pudding which is irresistible, I think, make Spiller's Pud- ding, which I got from an ex-Chairman of the firm, Mike Vernon — it is not made of dog biscuits.
Spiller's Pudding
11/2 lbs fresh or frozen raspberries 1/4 lb digestive biscuits 2 oz unsalted butter V: lb demerara sugar 1 pint thick cream Crush the biscuits in a plastic bag, banging them with a rolling-pin. Melt the butter, mix in the biscuits, cool, then stir in the sugar. Whip the cream very stiffly. Arrange in a nice glass bowl in layers: biscuits, raspberries, cream, in that order. Do it twice over.
Jennifer Paterson
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