Recipe for Blinding Pickled Eggs

Yet another festive feel good cupboard filler that graces most homes up and down the country this time of year is the love it/hate it pickled egg.

I find them really enjoyable with the cold spread left over Christmas buffet, just as well as simply dropped in a bag of crisps. (I know, strange custom, but it always conjures up memories of childhood evenings in the Village club, whilst drinking fizzy Vimto and listening to Andy Ford singing and telling jokes).

The problem, as usual, these days is that there a lot of poor quality eggs out there due to not enough flavour going into the Vinegar. 

This recipe of mine changes that. The method is quick and simple where the only tedious part comes from having to wait for the little oval gems to steep adequately enough.

My Father-in-Law makes masses each year and prefers them to be shelved for at least 3 months. However, I feel that they are good to nosh from as little as two weeks after bottling.

Read on, join in and get pickling!

Latest Addition to the tray of loveliness....Pickled Eggs.

Ingredients

• 48 fresh Free range Eggs, medium. (I tend to collect mine from a couple of local farmers where I know the eggs could not get any fresher, and that the Chickens really are Free Range)
• 1 litre Malt Vinegar
• 500ml Balsamic Vinegar
• 1.5 litres White wine Vinegar
• 8 Cloves
• 1 Teaspoon Coriander Seeds
• 1 Dessertspoon Dried Pink Peppercorns
• 1 Teaspoon toasted and crushed Black Mustard Seeds
• 12 Dried Dates, Blitzed or finely chopped
• 10 sprigs of fresh Thyme
• 1 Large Onion, Diced
• 1 Garlic Clove, cut across the horizontal
• 2 Pinches Seasalt flakes
• 1 Pinch Cracked Black Pepper
• Juice of ½ Lemon
• 1 ½ dessertspoons Truffled Honey (or good quality plain Honey)
• 2 dessertspoons Muscavado Sugar
• 3 Sage Leaves
• 2 Dessertspoons Tomato Puree

Method:

• Add all the ingredients (except the Eggs) into a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer for 10 minutes, Stirring occasionally.
• Remove from heat and allow to cool right down.
• Bring a pan of Water to the boil and place the eggs in (in batches if need be). Boil for 10 minutes if Eggs are stored at room temperature, or 12 minutes if stored in the fridge.
• Empty water, flush eggs with cold water for 8-10 minutes to stop the cooking process.
• Peel and place in fridge covered until needed.
• In clean and dry Jars, add your eggs. Make sure there is room in the jar to allow the Eggs to move around.
• Strain the pickling vinegar through a sieve and retain the seeds, onion etc.
• Pour the Vinegar over the Eggs, ensuring they are fully covered. Add a touch more Malt Vinegar if required.
• Share out the Seeds etc, in amongst the Jars.
• Seal with a tight fitting lid and gently shake to disperse the seeds etc. Add a  Label with the Date they were made and store in a cool (not cold) place, ideally a cupboard.
• Two weeks later, pop open and enjoy (with your banquette spread, or your packet of Crisps...).

Food, The Social Medium

Food is food at the end of the day.

It is a means to keep our bodies in a condition in which to function.

But since the foodie revolution in the late 90's it has become much more here in the UK.

If you search on the internet you will find hundreds and thousands of people who are celebrating food in all manner of styles, types, locations and levels of sophistication. The rise of blogging from these people is staggering, as well as their presence on social sites such as Twitter.

It has had an impact in the UK catering trade, and in a good way on the whole. Chefs are now in need of finding new angles and styles, pushing boundaries and developing niches to suit and excite these outspoken diners.

There is also less room for error and definitely no room for bullsh** which gives way to a more clear and honest approach to what we do in a professional capacity. And I for one like this.

Foodies on the whole are everyday people from all walks of life who share a common interest in good food. Through the power of the internet they shout and rave about the great places they have dined, the amazing recipes they took a crack at, and the best markets, food festivals and local producers they have come across.

They are a multitude of critics, more powerful than the likes of the legendary Jay Rayner et al, primarily because these people are the every-man. Your neighbor, work colleague, friend.

In my current line of work within the trade, I constantly strive to bring fresh ideas to the business that suits the demands of our guests. The menus have changed frequently enough to reform into the type of foods that the paying clients want and highly enjoy. There is no self-centered ego contained within with cursed words claiming  Chef knows best. But there is passion in every dish created, cooked and served. Through listening  to the guests comments and conversations the food has become very traditional in style, resulting in quality Pub Fayre, but still done in a way that holds our audience in amazement and therefore ensures word of mouth and re-visits.

The most recent venture I tasked myself with was more of a challenge than previously expected, but is now coming into fruition.

Tapas is a well received style of food these days, associated with sunny days and warm evenings, bottles of wine shared between friends and the ultimate in social eating. I love the idea of a Tapa, and have been asked more times than I care to recall if I would consider doing one here. My response has always had to be in the negative as it does not reflect with the over-all style to the Public House. However, I am always up for a challenge so looked into alternative ideas. What eventually came to be took the best part of two months to construct, source, create and implement.

Due to the rise of amazing local specialty products I went on the hunt to find great food that would suit what I had in mind.

Through networking via social sites I began to find Artisan companies from around the West Country that oozed passion and the sense of small scale which was exactly what I was looking for. I found Handmade Scotch Eggs that were packed solid, full of flavour and most importantly, moist. Sausage Rolls hand made by a Butchers Wife that tasted out of this world. Melt in the mouth Hand raised Pork Pies (without gelatin). A cracking Artisan Meat company that makes (among other things) Beautiful Venison Salami, Air Dried Mutton and Cured Veal. An Old Farmers Wife who pickles Onions the way our Grandparents used to. A Fab tiny bakery with amazing old fashioned bread. And some of the most mind blowing cheeses you can imagine.

They all inspired me to go back to the roots of food, to remember simple snacks that I used to enjoy as a child. I ended up creating all sorts of recipes including Chicken wings, marinated in Orchard Apple Juice, Ground Almonds and Cinnamon, and Green Peppercorn Smoked Mussels finished in Burrow Hill Cider Brine.

We now have the functionality and social aspect of a Tapas coupled with the old fashioned British Bar snack in our newly released West Country Artisan Deli Board. Simple foods traditional in aspect yet the peak of quality and flavour. The time I become very proud is when a wide selection goes out to one table, knowing that the lucky guests are understanding the concept, enjoying the pairing with selected local Ales and Ciders, and telling all who follow their tweets, shouts, and status updates.

God bless you Foodies, without you, British Cuisine would be extinct.