DESERT ISLAND DISHES
Profile Desert island dishes
In our new series, we ask the great and the good of the school catering world: if you were to be cast away alone on a desert island, which favourite eight dishes would you choose to have with you? – assuming of course that you had a kitchen and an inexhaustible supply of ingredients
ANNE BULL, NATIONAL CHAIR OF LACA
1. Roast Aylesbury duck with either plum or damson sauce
This is a dish that reminds me of the great times at home before I left for college. My mum used to cook this for special occasions. Lots of crispy skin – yummy!
2. Coulibiac, with a separate bowl of soured cream and a crispy green salad I love fi sh – especially salmon – and I was shown how to make this traditional Russian fi sh pie by a chef in the fi rst contract catering sites I managed in the 80s.
3. Crème brûlée
I’m more of a savoury person, so I don’t get particularly excited about dessert menus, but I can’t resist a crème brûlée! The Welsh region committee laugh when we’re selecting the meal choices for the awards evening, as we’ve had this dessert each year!
4. Sauerbraten with potato dumplings and braised red cabbage
We have some very good friends in Essen, Germany, and this is a dish that Irene makes. She marinades the beef for 4-6 days and rolls them up and slowly braises the meat in a rich wine sauce for four hours. The potato dumplings are added in the last
hour or so. It’s a traditional German family meal and is absolutely delicious.
5. Welsh cawl with granary bread This is a traditional Welsh meal – a bit more than a soup but not thick like a stew. Cheap cuts of lamb are best for this dish and root vegetables are added. Traditionally it is cooked slowly the day before and reheated.
6. Cockles and laverbread with crispy bacon
This reminds me of Pembrokeshire, which is the best place in the world to relax and chill out. Laverbread is edible seaweed – it can be salty, but is delicious cooked in the bacon fat and with the cockles. This is a traditional Welsh dish and isn’t often seen these days, but I remember my fi rst taste of this when visiting older relatives when I was a little girl.
7. Smoked salmon and scrambled egg I’m a breakfast person and could never start the day without one. I could miss lunch quite easily but defi nitely need to have a good start to the day! This is my favourite, a real treat at the weekend!
8. Lasagne
I’m told this should be my ‘signature dish’. I usually make my version when friends come round for supper or if we go to our families in Derbyshire or Shropshire. I take it with us at their request! It’s quick and easy and I usually make loads for the freezer every couple of months.
If you were only allowed one dish, which would you choose? That’s really difficult, but if pushed it would have to be the sauerbraten.
You’re also allowed one luxury item. What would it be?
I would take my patchwork. I’ve promised the family for a long time that I’d make a patchwork bedspread. It’s half finished and being on the island by myself with no distractions may give me the time I need to finish it!
What book would you take with you, knowing you already had a religious text of your choice and the complete works of Shakespeare? A collection of Maeve Binchy books; they’re easy reading and help me relax.
June 2013 61
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