The great British weather doesn’t always make this possible, but when the sun does shine, there’s nothing better than dusting down the picnic blanket, packing a hamper with lovely food and drink and sharing it with friends. That’s why we are supporting National Picnic Week, which starts on Saturday 13th June.
The week aims to provide people with the ideal opportunity to get together over a picnic with advice, tips, recipes and information to make sure everything from the food and drink to the location and surroundings are spot on.
In the modern age you can now get some amazing picnic-friendly pre-packaged and whilst the purists would say this is cheating, we think it is possible to strike the right balance.
It’s certainly changed a lot since the Victorian era. In her Book of Household Management of 1861, a chapter entitled ‘Bill of fare for a picnic for 40 persons; Mrs Beeton suggested the following menu:
A joint of cold roast beef, a joint of cold boiled beef, two ribs of lamb, two shoulders of lamb, four roast fowls, two roast ducks, a ham, a tongue, two veal-and-ham pies, two pigeon pies, six medium-sized lobsters, one piece of collared calf’s head, then salads, biscuits, bread and cheese, and 122 bottles of drink – plus champagne.
Wow!
Things have changed a lot since then. We are all very busy and picnics now tend to be based on the ‘less is more’ principle. Our advice would be to KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid) so we are suggesting sandwiches, of course, but do try to come up with something more ambitious than cucumber, or egg and cress. Have you tried, for example, a vegetable samosa sandwich with some raita? Trust us, they are delicious.
Scotch eggs are also a picnic staple, but rather than using sausage meat and breadcrumbs to encase the egg, why don’t you try an onion bhaji mixture instead? If you like the sound of that, the recipe is below.
Mezze selections such as flatbreads, hummus and olives are always nice and can bring a touch of the Mediterranean (if not the same weather!) and for the kids (and adults too in most cases!), mozzarella sticks, potato wedges and onion rings always go down a treat.
Remember to bake a cake for your picnic and take lots of fruit, strawberries especially.
All this great food can be washed down with Pimms (hey it is the summer!), Prosecco, some good craft beers and for those who prefer something weaker, sparkling water, fruit juice and a good old fashioned English cuppa
Let the picnicking commence!
Click on the link for more information about National Picnic Week.
Scotch Egg Onion Bhaji
Ingredients:
3 free range eggs (medium) – hard or soft boiled
Ingredients for Bhaji’s:
thinly sliced white onions – 600g
gram flour – 80g
cornflour – 20g
baking powder – 10g (1tsp)
salt – 8g (3 quarters of tsp)
sugar – 8g (1tsp)
Spice mix :
chilli powder – 1tsp
turmeric powder – 1tsp
crushed coriander seeds – 1tsp
cumin seeds – 1tbsp
kolonji seeds – 1tsp
yoghurt – 60g
Methodology:
Prepare your eggs in advance and have them cooked and chilled. Mix salt and sugar with sliced onions and let it sit for 20min. You will use a process of osmosis which will withdraw the bitter and unnecessary moisture from the final product. This will result in light and crisp bhajis. After the given time drain the excess moisture out. Use a cloth and squeeze tightly. Finally transfer the bhajis to a mixing bowl and mix with the remaining ingredients (spice mix). At this stage the onions are ready to form and drop into hot oil to fry to make up small bhajis.
Assemble:
Pre-heat deep fat fryer to 180C. For the Scotch egg effect you need to coat the cooked egg with onion mixture. It is quite difficult to stick the onions to the smooth egg surface so dust the eggs with corn or plain flour. Squeeze the onion mixture into egg (about 80-100g) and roll evenly with your hands to flatten the surface. Start frying Scotch egg bhajis individually for 4-5min and drain the excess oil onto a kitchen towel when ready.
Serving suggestions:
Serve with rich tomato and coriander chutney, mango chutney or cooling yoghurt. You can serve the bhajis hot as a starter or eat it cold for lunch time.
About Neil Shaefer
Marketing & Communications Executive of SK Foods.
Your food. Our Passion.
