{"id":2786,"date":"2011-08-22T12:54:34","date_gmt":"2011-08-22T12:54:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jamesramsden.com\/?p=2786"},"modified":"2011-08-22T13:06:22","modified_gmt":"2011-08-22T13:06:22","slug":"egg-night-at-the-secret-larder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jamesramsden.com\/2011\/08\/22\/egg-night-at-the-secret-larder\/","title":{"rendered":"Egg Night at The Secret Larder"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A couple of months ago I jumped on the sleeper to Cornwall to see Clarence Court HQ<\/a>\u00a0with Mark Hix, having recently been made an ambassador for the brand. After seeing all the happy birds I thought it seemed like a good time to put on an egg night at The Secret Larder<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Anyone who has ever eaten a Clarence Court egg will know why this was such an exciting prospect – from the bowling ball-sized ostrich egg<\/a> to the pretty little quail eggs they are all stunning, with fat, rich, yolks and a flavour that makes the pale, insipid budget eggs seem on a par with pus-charged phlegm.<\/p>\n

But I was wary of overdoing it on the egg front; it’s a special and not particularly pleasant feeling, that nausea you get when you’ve eaten too many eggs. So I came up with a menu that, I hope, showcased the versatility of eggs without totally, ahem, overegging it.<\/p>\n

On arrival guests drank raspberry gin and tonics all frothed up with egg white – it’s a pretty straightforward drink. Blend raspberries with a little sugar and lemon juice and then strain. For one drink put equal parts raspberry juice and gin in a shaker with an egg white. Shake and pour over ice and top up with tonic water. Serve with a raspberry.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>There were soft boiled quail eggs with a version of celery salt – fleur de sel with celery seed – on the tables for everyone to pick at and chat over.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>To start I’d wanted to do bantam scotch egg arancini but 1) couldn’t find bantam eggs and 2) slightly undercooked the risotto (by arancini standards – you need to overcook the rice) and so couldn’t form the rice around the eggs. Things don’t always go according to plan. So I did yet more quail eggs perched on a half an arancino. A nest, if you will.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Next was a chilled watercress, parsley and lovage soup with a poached hen’s egg.\u00a0
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>By the main course I thought everyone might have had enough of eating whole eggs and so did very slowly braised lamb neck with an anchovy sabayon. A sabayon is like a hollandaise, in that it’s an emulsion of egg yolks and butter. This one contained a puree of anchovy and garlic. Guests seemed willing to drink it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Pudding was creme brulee. Well, almost brulee. My blowtorch ran out of gas and so I had to put it under my misfiring grill. It didn’t quite look the part but ramekins came back clean.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Finally coffee and tea was taken with some mini meringues that I squidged together with a grand marnier-infused cream and a blueberry.<\/p>\n

A huge thanks to Clarence Court for providing such amazing eggs. And there’s more!<\/p>\n

COMPETITION!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Clarence Court are offering a chance to win two spaces to The Secret Larder in October. Just ‘like’ their Facebook page<\/a>\u00a0and give a reason why you should win.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple of months ago I jumped on the sleeper to Cornwall to see Clarence Court HQ\u00a0with Mark Hix, having recently been made an ambassador for the brand. After seeing all the happy birds I thought it seemed like a good time to put on an egg night at The Secret Larder. Anyone who has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[181,266,703],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zdji-IW","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jamesramsden.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2786"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jamesramsden.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jamesramsden.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jamesramsden.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jamesramsden.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2786"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.jamesramsden.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2797,"href":"https:\/\/www.jamesramsden.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2786\/revisions\/2797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jamesramsden.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jamesramsden.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jamesramsden.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}