Dec 05 2008
Speedy Supper
Nigella throws us a curveball by publishing a recipe with small portions.
- Merguez with Halloumi and Flame-Roasted Peppers
We’d been looking forward to this as it contains four of my favourite things (merguez, halloumi, roasted peppers and garlic) and because it was practically a zero effort tea; open packet, open jar, cut up cheese, put all in roasting pan, bake 20 mins. It took us until December to make this because Edinburgh has no reliable source of trust-worthy merguez. And I am picky about these things. We’d been just about to crack and order them from Nigella’s suggested online purveyor, when we took a little trip to that well known foodie mecca, Aberdeen. There, we found an ‘international street market’, where I was able to say ‘des merguez, s’il vous plait’ to a hairy frenchman and feel smug. We nearly left them in Aberdeen (technically, we did leave them in Aberdeen, but they were couriered down on the train the next day) but finally, on Friday, we got the chance to tuck into them.
It was the ideal occasion; we had an evening engagement (celebrating the PhD-Viva-passing of an old friend) to get out too promptly, but it was bitterly cold outside so we were looking for something warming and hearty to take the chill of us.
Trouble was, it felt a bit insubstantial. Nigella asked for eight sausages for four people; the way our packet split, we had five sausages, but it still wasn’t enough. They did shrink doon to skinny wee things, which can’t have helped- perhaps better quality bangers would’ve held their size and filled us up more. As we’d halved the recipe we used less than a full jar of peppers and only half a packet of halloumi- and we really wished we’d just gone the whole hog with both. We served this up with a warmed up ficelle Dougal had made the night before, which was good for mopping up the juices, but not enough.
The sausages were great- juicy and meaty- and the peppers and halloumi went really well with them. There just wasn’t enough. Not a situation we’d expect Nigella to get us into!
In the end there was nothing for it but to supplement the meal with a pudding of ice cream and chocolate sauce. I even threw a bit of peanut butter into the sauce, because Nigella has had that effect on me. And no, while you ask, I didn’t look up a recipe.
Crombies. Edinburgh. Merguez. Reliable, trust-worthy source of the aforementioned.
ah, but. A source close to me, whom I trust explicitly, says that the Crombies merguez are deeply disappointing and not at all authentic. And seeing as I don’t know who you are, my anonymous friend, I don’t know whether I ought to go out on a limb and give your recommendation a chance or stick to what I know.