Mammoth. That’s what my weekend in the kitchen with Jamie was. Apart from it being a par for the course big weekend of eating, drinking and dancing at the farm with friends, I tackled four recipes from the book and though they probably weren’t the four quickest and easiest recipes, when you’re feeding 11 people and celebrating a 30th birthday, you don’t do things by halves.
Overnight Slow-roasted Pork
Roast Leg of Lamb with Aubergines and Onions
Potato Rösti
1980’s-style Black Forest Swiss Roll
It all began on Thursday, with a trip to the butcher for the pork shoulder and the leg of lamb. Followed by a two trolley session at Woollies with Gem.
After a few wind-down cleansing ales on arrival at the farm on Friday night, it was, before we knew it, the middle of the night and time to make a start on the pork. Stu helped me rub crushed fennel seeds and salt into the skin then we placed in it the baking dish with chopped fennel bulbs, chopped carrots and some garlic cloves (expertly peeled by Gem – a fun job after a few wines!) and into the pre-heated-to-max-oven for 30 minutes before turning down to 100 and heading to bed at 2am!
Not only did I dream of the pork, but I woke in a panic several times, running out to the kitchen, to be met by amazing aromas and finding it beautifully roasting away. I shuffled back to bed.
As much as we were tempted to pull it out and eat it for breakfast – seriously, you cannot imagine how fantastic the smells in the house were – I left it to continue it’s slow roast, all the way through until 1pm. A whopping 11 hours in the oven. We pulled the meat of the bone and put it in the fridge for later.
Why, you ask, did I do this? Because I needed to free up the oven for everything else! If only the farm had an industrial catering kitchen, but alas no… By this stage, Sarah had arrived and was looking forward to taking up her post in the kitchen, so we made a start on the logs. Yes plural. Two chocolate logs. One in the oven while mixing the next one and making the syrup (I’ll just say here that my “splash” of brandy was about half the size of Sarah’s “splash”, though no doubt she’ll tell a different story!). Chocolate sponge, spread with cherry brandy syrup, chocolate cream, whipped cream and sprinkled with cherries. Now you roll. Quite a challenge, but incredibly fun. And all the creamy choc goodness that oozed out the end had to be eaten by someone, so why not two people who’d been slaving in the kitchen all day…
Chocolate logs in the fridge to set, time to start the lamb. Into the oven for half an hour, then throw in wedges of eggplant and red onion and back in the oven for an hour. Meanwhile, I made a tomato sauce with tinned plum tommys, anchovies, parsley stalks, garlic and red wine vinegar, left to simmer for half an hour, while Sarah and I took turns to chop matchsticks of potato for the rosti.
Back down the hill and into the kitchen, it became a frenzy of activity and my sous-chefs excelled themselves. While I flitted about the kitchen, yelling orders left right and centre, the girls took it all in their stride, chopping, topping, tailing, stirring, squishing, tearing and frying.
Half an hour later we served up a pretty spectacular dinner – Happy Birthday Stu!
More than one of us went back for seconds, so a short break was necessary. Some dance floor action suited, making space for the dessert. I have to say, the choccy logs were amazing.
If I had to sum it up I’d say: Farm = good food, good wine, good friends, good times.
And thank god for the sous-chefs, otherwise dinner might not have been served until the wee small hours. It was definitely a mammoth effort.
Xx
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