In honour of the late Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh, we decided that it would be fitting to have a British-Themed Night. As a Scottish descendent, I found the need to in some way pay tribute to the Duke's 70+ years of service to his wife, the Crown, and the nation.
On the menu for the night:
- Hendricks Gin with FeverTree Tonic Water
- Fish Fingers (childhood favourite)
- Chips (home-made wedges)
- Mushy Peas
- Yum-Yum sauce (my own take on a 1000 Island Sauce)
We launched the evening after the Duke's funeral with a solid Hendricks Gin & FeverTree Tonic with cucumber garnish, of course. My partner was in charge of pouring the gins, and he's rather heavy-handed, so I think we ended up with triples! Anyway, who's complaining, it's Saturday.
After that, I brought out our dinner - fish fingers & chips, with mushy peas! (and my secret Yum-Yum sauce, which I wish we'd had as kids, because then I would have eaten ALL my veggies if I could dip them in that sauce!) A quintessential British (and commonwealth) childhood food is fish fingers & chips, so I thought it rather fitting and somewhat nostalgic to have that instead of making my usual lemon butter salmon. And instead of standard chips, I decided to make Wedges. My wedges are a bit of a hybrid version of Jamie Oliver's crunchy roast potatoes. I spice it up with garlic powder, paprika, cayenne, and lots of salt.
Now I don't think that there are many Germans that are familiar with mushy peas. The British are often used to the local pub-meal kind of mushy peas, that look like an unappetising brownish splotch of over-cooked pea mush on your plate. Mine? Well, that's a different story entirely. They're absolutely delicious, bright green and full of minty goodness. I add a bit of chive cream cheese to make them even tastier. When your man is able and willing to scoop out and eat spoonfuls of mushy peas from the bowl, then you're definitely winning!
All in all, it was a lovely evening to end off a very well-done funeral for Prince Phillip. We talked through the part of the funeral that we felt were particularly touching, and we both agreed that the lone bag piper was very special. I also felt very much in touch with my heritage yesterday, and was lucky enough to be very familiar with Windsor Castle, having been there on holidays since I was a kid. It was a touching farewell, in what must be a most difficult time for the Windsor family, given the circumstances of covid restrictions in the UK.
Let me know in the comments section if you watched the funeral, what you thought, how you spent your weekend, and if you'd like any of the recipes for the above.
Signing off for now.
- Jess