The point today was to prep a few things to limit, to some degree, the amount of work on Hogswatch proper. Today I made three items, hard sauce, bread sauce, and potted shrimp. Each dish was pretty simple, only had a few steps, when compared to things like the Hogswatch pie or of the sausages.

First I made the easiest, hard sauce. For those who are not “in the know,” hard sauce is basically butter with sugar and booze. I used good Irish butter for this, as it would make for a better flavor. I had intended to use the remaining brandy that I decanted off of the dried fruit, but looking at the recipe and the amount of sugar, I opted to use bourbon instead, as it would not be as sweet. After blending up the batch and tasting, I thought it could use a bit more bourbon, so mine has probably 3 tablespoons. It is a potent sauce, but it is a sauce to be used on a pudding.

Butter and powdered sugar waiting for the booze

The last of my bourbon

Hard sauce!

The next dish was the bread sauce. I used more of the Irish butter, as well as all the herbs and spices that the recipe called for. I had to stand close as I did not want to milk to scald, but I started working on the shrimp as I simmered the milk. The sauce made up well, though I find it a bit under spiced. I did season it with salt and pepper, but the flavor of the herbs and spices is weak. Perhaps after 24 hours chilled the flavor will mature. We shall see.

Herbs ready for the simmer

herbs simmering

bread sauce

The potted shrimp is an interesting recipe. It calls for cooked shrimp that you cover with a spiced butter. Seems originally the butter acted to preserve the food underneath. Now, it is simply a technique to create an interesting dish. Well, as with a lot of British ingredients, we cannot get brown shrimp here, so I got some of our usual shrimp and sauteed them up in some butter and garlic for flavor. Like simmering the milk for the bread sauce, there was a long wait to melt the butter down and let the water boil out. Then came straining the butter to make clarified butter. I have not seen anchovy paste around the stores here, but I did have some anchovies left over from a salad some time ago. I minced one up to substitute for the paste. The spiced butter had a nice flavor. Valah is making a rustic bread for the toast that this dish needs. She is also making a cranberry cake for breakfast tomorrow, though I am not sure if that is before or after stockings.

cooked shrimp

The ingredients for the spiced butter

straining the milk solids out of the butter

clarified butter

potted shrimp

Hogswatch Dinner Part 3 Addendum: Hogswatch eve

For dinner tonight we had the Hogswatch pie. It was well chilled when I pulled it out of the “walk in.” So I headed the oven on warm and tossed it in to bring it up a bit while I made a quick napa cabbage salad to go with it. This is not traditional, but we all felt like we wanted some fresh veg as we have not had it in a while, and the napa cabbage was all we had. IT sliced well, as you can see below. We all had small slices, as some of the websites mentioned it was heavy, and rich. In fact, while it is a meaty dish, we all really liked it and had a second slice. I sipped sherry while eating the pie and watching The Hogfather. We have decided this should be an annual tradition.

un-molded pie