Faggots - Retro Recipe Day 2

Yes you heard me, faggots. You all remember these right? Well the original recipe has a fair bit of offal in it so I have made them slightly differently (no heart,just some liver) as offal is not so popular these days. They have a taste of their own and are just lovely.

They are so very British and were cooked as a cheap food, but I think its time for a revival.

Ingredients:     (Makes about 14)

110g pork shoulder, chopped
110g pigs liver, chopped
250g pork belly, chopped
80g breadcrumbs
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp. parsley (fresh or dried)
1 tsp. thyme
salt & pepper
7-8 strips of streaky bacon

Method:

Put the meats into a food processor and blend until well chopped and combined. Put into a bowl and add the breadcrumbs, herbs, seasoning and mix well. Put into a container and chill in the refrigerator for half an hour.

Stretch each piece of bacon with the back of a knife on a chopping board to thin and lengthen a bit and cut in half. Make a ball of the faggot mix (just under 2 inches) and roll a piece of the bacon around it. Put onto a baking tray and complete the remainder.

Set the oven at 170 C and cook for 40 minutes. Serve with boiled potatoes and homemade onion gravy (recipe here).

You'll be surprised how good they are. Similar to standard meatballs but with OH so much flavour. Retro food at its best!

Rhubarb & Custard Cream Biscuits

During this retro week of cooking I wanted to make some biscuits that make me think of my childhood. And two stood out to me. Custard creams and garibaldi. I loved them both although I don't eat that many biscuits these days.

The rhubarb in the garden is doing particularly well already this year, so I went out and cropped a handful...thinking how nice rhubarb and custard creams would be..

Ingredients:

500g rhubarb, cut into inch pieces
1 tbsp. honey
2 tbsp. sugar
splash of water
220g plain flour
60g custard powder
30g icing sugar
180g butter, cold and cubed
1/4 tsp. vanilla essence
60g butter
225g icing sugar
3 tbsp. custard powder
5-6 tbsp. stewed rhubarb
1/4 tsp. red food colouring (unless your rhubarb is particularly vibrant!)

Method:

Put the rhubarb in a small pan with a splash of water, the honey and sugar. Cook for about 20 minutes to break down and cook the fruit. Turn off heat and leave to cool.

In a mixing bowl put the flour, icing sugar, custard powder and vanilla essence. Rub in the butter with your fingers. It will seem crumbly but keep going until fine breadcrumb texture. Press together to form a dough and wrap in cling film. Chill for 30 minutes.

Roll out the dough in between two sheets of cling film to a height of about 3mm and use a cookie cutter to make rounds (about 2 inch.) Pull together the dough scraps, re roll and re cut. Prick with a fork and put on a baking sheet covered with baking paper. Chill again in the fridge for 15 minutes. Cook at 180 C for 10 minutes until lightly golden. Remove and leave to cool. You should have about 24 biscuits.

For the filling, use a hand blender to whip the butter until light. Add the icing sugar and custard powder a little at a time until half used. Then add the rhubarb and whisk further. Then add the remaining icing sugar and custard powder to have a smooth creamy filling. Add a tiny bit of red food colouring if needed. You will probably have a bit too much of the buttercream, but it freezes really well!

Use a piping bag to fill the centre of half of the upturned biscuits and top with another half. Chill in the fridge for 10 minutes. Then enjoy with a cup of tea in the garden!

To anyone who may be curious about the cookies in the background of the photo above - that is the second batch of oat, raisin & hazelnut cookies that I made last week (I froze half the dough). Only after cooking them, I drizzled with white chocolate. Even better!