Yesterday we enacted what is for us an occasional bank holiday weekend ritual: the making of terrine — something I’ve written about before, for example here and here. As always it is at least partly made up as we go along, but always a variant of a basic recipe. So yesterday’s was a terrine which includes spinach. Yes, spinach! I don’t recall exactly where I got the original idea for this, some 25-ish years ago, but I think it may have been Elizabeth David. Anyway it works very well. In fact the first time we did this it worked so well that our then two cats found the result addictive!
Anyway this is (roughly) how yesterday’s terrine was concocted. It takes time, but it is worth it.
Ennismore Terrine
This makes enough to all but fill a 24cm round Le Creuset casserole; a large cake tin would work too.
Ingredients
6-8 rashers streaky bacon or equivalent in bacon offcuts
About 800 gm pork
About 800 gm chicken livers
About 400 gm plain pork sausages, skinned; or equivalent amount of sausage meat
About 300 gm bread without crusts
About 500 gm spinach
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 or 4 cloves of garlic, peeled
Wineglass of calvados, brandy or whisky
Half a glass of white wine
2 tablespoons garlic purée
3-4 tablespoons tomato paste
Handful of juniper berries
1 large egg
Pinch of salt and a generous grind of black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs of choice
1 tablespoon Worcs. sauce
Olive oil
A little butter

The finished result

1. Chop the bacon into 1cm pieces.
2. Cut the pork into 1cm cubes, removing the skin, bone and any excess fat.
3. Put the bread, herbs, salt and pepper, garlic cloves, juniper berries in a food processor and whizz to a crumb.
4. Add the sausage meat, half a glass of the calvados, Worcs. sauce and the egg to the food processor and whizz again to a smooth paste. Transfer this to a large mixing bowl.
5. Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a frying pan and lightly cook the spinach. Drain well and add to the meat mix.
6. With a bit more olive oil fry the onion until translucent. Tip this out into the food processor with the garlic purée and tomato paste.
7. With a little more oil if needed fry the bacon until the outside is seared and browning but still undercooked inside. Add this to the food processor and whizz lightly; do not purée.
8. Now fry the chicken livers for a few minutes again until the outside is beginning to brown but not cooked through. (As the livers aren’t fully cooked don’t go tasting the cake mix!) Add this to the food processor and whizz; it will make a slurry. Add this to the meat mix.
9. Finally fry the pork until lightly browned but also not cooked through and put this in the food processor.
10. Deglaze the pan with the rest of the calvados and the white wine. Add this to the food processor and whizz to a rough paste; don’t worry if it looks grainy. Add this to the meat mix.
11. Mix the meats together thoroughly; don’t be afraid to use your hands.
12. Butter the casserole generously or, if using a cake tin, line it with baking parchment.
13. Pour the meat mix into the casserole/tin and firm it down well. Cover with foil or a tight fitting lid.
14. Cook in the oven at 170°C for about 1½ hours. It is done when a knife stuck in the terrine for a few seconds comes out very hot (or a meat thermometer at 80°C).
15. Remove from the oven and if possible weight the terrine to press it. (Something flat with tins of beans or a brick on it works; heavier is better.)
16. Allow to cool for a couple of hours and then put in the fridge for at least 2 hours more, but preferably overnight, still with the weight.
17. If you made the terrine in a tin you can now turn it out. If you used a casserole you’ll need to serve it from the dish.
18. Serve with crusty bread and/or salad.

Notes

1. This is very forgiving. You can use any mix of meats you like but it does need a little fat. And you can vary the proportions according to taste. It is OK to use belly pork if you’re fine with the fat, otherwise use something like leg steaks and don’t skimp on the sausage meat.
2. If using a cake tin, some people like to line it with streaky bacon. This holds the terrine together better when it is turned out as a loaf. Personally I can’t be bothered, but then I usually make it in a casserole anyway.
3. You can also add any odd ends of leftover veg (mushroom, tomato, potato are especially good) but this is entirely optional. If you do, either finely chop them or whizz them together with the breadcrumbs.
4. The mix should be a paste but not sloppy. If you find it is too wet then add some extra breadcrumbs or some stuffing mix.
5. Technically the terrine should be cooked in a Bain Marie, but I never bother.
6. You can get away without pressing the terrine but the result will be more friable and crumbly, and won’t turn out of a tin so well.

We’ve just devoured some for lunch with home-made seedy bread, and it was good.

Hic! One of my birthday presents was a bottle of Hammer & Sons “Old English Gin“. It comes in a recycled green bottle, with a cork and wax seal.
So of course I had to try it at lunchtime. It is rather nice. I recommend it!
This Old English Gin is made from a 1783 recipe, distilling eleven botanicals in Angela, the oldest pot still being used in England today. Despite the number of botanicals used there is a distinct juniper flavour, which I like. (The juniper flavour seems contrary to the current fashion in gin making where the final product appears not to have even seen any juniper — that’s just not gin in my book, more like funny flavoured vodka!)
I spotted this gin on the British Library shop website (of all the unlikely places!) but it seems to be rather more widely available than I had expected. Good grief, it’s even available on Amazon! OK it isn’t cheap, but it is strong (44% ABV) and it is good.
Yes, this is a strong, refreshing gin. In fact it is so good it almost seems a shame to add anything to it, even tonic water. It is definitely too good for making cocktails or using the enhance the curry. Drink it strong with not much tonic, so that the botanicals get a chance to show through.
This could well become one of my most favourite gins, along with Adnams Copper House gin.
Overall Rating: ★★★★★

We’re not ones for huge 2, 3 or more course meals. A simple main course is sufficient even on Christmas Day — we do try not to stuff (or drink) ourselves stupid! But we do believe in good, wholesome fresh food. So over the Christmas period we’ve had some seriously good food, starting with a Pheasant stuffed with Partridge stuffed with pork forcemeat brought (ready prepared) from Elveden Estate Shop on the way back from our Christmas visit to my mother — we always stop at Eleveden and we always buy some seriously good home-grown meat.

This is the year of the Parmesan Biscuit — small cheesy biscuity nibbles. I’ve just made three batches, two to take to Sue’s tonight after “Carols by Candlelight”. The recipe is from Simon Hopkinson’s The Good Cook.
Parmesan Biscuits
Makes: about 30-36 4cm biscuits
Preparation time: 10 minutes, plus time to chill the pastry
Cooking Time: 10 minutes

1. Place the butter and flour into the bowl of a food processor with the salt, cayenne, mustard powder and cheeses. Process together to begin with, and then finely pulse the mixture in short spurts as you notice the mixture coming together – it will eventually bind without the need for egg or water.
2. Wrap in cling film and leave to chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
3. While the dough chills, preheat the oven to 180C.
4. Lightly flour a work surface and gently roll out the pastry to about the thickness of a pound coin. Cut out the biscuits to the size and shape you wish — anything between 3cm and 5cm, depending on the occasion. Lay them out on baking parchment on a baking sheet 1-2cm apart; you may well need two baking sheets for this quantity.
5. Carefully brush the surface of each biscuit with the beaten egg, optionally add a thin slice of fresh chilli, and sprinkle over a little finely grated parmesan.
6. Bake for 10 minutes, or until they are a gorgeous golden-brown colour; the superb smell will also inform you that they are ready.
7. Carefully lift the biscuits off the tray using a palette knife and place on a rack to cool. Although the biscuits will keep well in a sealed container for a few days, I have never known this to happen!

Notes

1. The quantities are fairly critical. Do not over do the cheese or butter and do not over blend the ingredients otherwise the mixture goes too soft and is unworkable.
2. The “mis-shapes” left after cutting out the biscuits can also be glazed and cooked and will make a bowl of party nibbles.

Just a quick update on this evening’s tasting of our second Beaujolais Nouveau from Nick Dobson Wines.
This one is a true Beaujolais Nouveau from Philippe Deschamps (Vincent Lacondemine makes a Beaujolais Villages Nouveau — like the French care about these things!).
The Deschamps Nouveau is definitely the better of the two I have. Much more body, much more fruit and decidedly smoother, with red berry fruits, especially blackberry, coming though quite strongly. Exceedingly drinkable. Still clearly a young wine but this might well keep whereas I have my doubts about the Lacondemine. (Yes, I know you’re not supposed to keep Nouveau, but last year’s has kept brilliantly.)