The British Food Fare class by At 19 Culinary Studio was postponed indefinitely a couple of months ago due to many last minute cancellations & I was the only student left. When the class was enlisted again, I immediately signed up for it. In this class, we learnt simple recipes which are classic staples served in British households - scotch egg, shepherd's pie & bread and butter pudding.
Chef Khai started the class with the first recipe, shepherd's pie. Those of you who have heard of this pie but wonders what goes into it, it's usually filled with minced beef or lamb. Of course, you can always substitute the filling with chicken if you are not fond of red meat. Firstly, we prepared the filling by sauteing the vegetables; adding in tomato coulis & brown stock, then combining the minced lamb into the pan to let it simmer until cooked & sauce thickened. The filling is left to cool aside.
Meanwhile, we boiled the potatoes which will be used to pipe onto the shepherd's pie. Once the potatoes have softened, we seasoned it with salt & pepper then sprinkle some nutmeg powder before mashing it. After the filling is cooled, we arranged a few aluminum foil tart tins on the baking tray & started scooping the filling into it. Then, we piped the mashed potato on top & bake it for 15 mins at 200°C.
While the pies gets cooked in the oven, we moved on to the next recipe - scotch egg. First, we blended the minced chicken with 1 tbsp of whipping cream & egg. Next, we added in coarse black pepper, cajun & salt to taste & kept aside. As for the eggs, we boiled them in a pot of boiling water sprinkled with some salt until they turned hard. When the eggs cooled, the shells were peeled off then wrapped with the prepared minced chicken individually to form a ball. Then, we dipped the eggs into a whisked egg in separate bowl before rolling into flour & bread crumbs. Each piece is then deep-fried until golden brown.
The last recipe was the bread & butter pudding, the easiest recipe out of the 3 dishes. First, we had to mix the milk, cream, eggs, vanilla essence & sugar together before adding in melted butter. Then, we needed to prepare caramel which will be the base of the pudding. The caramel consists of water & sugar boiled together in a pot with the ratio of 1:1. The caramel is ready once the water & sugar are combined. After that, we soaked slices of bread (leftover/slightly stale bread) into the milk & cream mixture prepared earlier for 10-15 mins. While waiting, the caramel is poured into a tin mould to cover the base. The soaked bread slices were then transferred to the tin mould. Finally, the pudding is sent to the oven to bake for 10 mins at 140°C.
Ta-da! There you have it, 3 simple less complicated dishes which are popular favourites in the UK. Yum~
Based on the given recipe, I find the bread & pudding a tad to sweet to my liking. It didn't taste as fantastic as the better ones I have tried. Nevertheless, it still tasted good & I wouldn't have done it any better than this prior to this class. More practice needed! Now I just need to get the oven installed & fire up.
