Eurovision Party Recipes

Planning on hosting a Eurovision party this Saturday? We’ve rounded up some of the best recipes from across the web to keep you going whilst your cheering on our hopeful this year, Molly Smitten-Downes.

1. Bucks Fizzers – BBC Good Food

Ingredients

• 500ml pot double cream
• 300g dark chocolate, broken into chunks
• zest 2 oranges, plus 100ml juice (and a splash extra)
• 2 tbsp icing sugar, sifted
• a few sachets sherbet
• For the cream
• 200ml whipping cream
• 50ml Prosecco, Cava or Champagne
• 2 tbsp icing sugar, sifted

Method

1. Put the cream, chocolate, orange zest and juice, and icing sugar in a heatproof bowl. Set over a pan of barely simmering water and gently melt until smooth.
2. Splash about 0.5-1cm of orange juice into a small bowl. Tip the sherbet onto a plate. Dip the rims of 8 small pots, glasses or jars into the orange juice, then into the sherbet – like frosting the rim of a Margarita glass. Keep the remaining sherbet.
3. Evenly pour the chocolate between your frosted pots, glasses or jars, and chill for at least 2 hrs, or up to 48 hrs.
4. Beat the whipping cream, Prosecco and icing sugar until thick, then add a dollop to the top of each pot. Sprinkle on a little more sherbet just before serving.

2. Jamie Oliver’s Swedish Meatballs – The Guardian

 

Ingredients

For the meatballs:

• a handful of mixed fresh herbs, such as dill, flat-leaf parsley or chives, roughly chopped
• 300g minced pork, the best quality you can afford
• 300g minced beef
• 1 large egg, preferably free-range or organic
• 100ml milk
• 75g dried breadcrumbs
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• olive oil

For the sauce:

• juice of ½ a lemon
• 300ml beef stock, preferably organic (if using a stock cube, ½ is enough)
• 1 tablespoon plain flour
• 60ml double cream
• 1 x 200g jar of lingon berry, cranberry, blackberry or blackcurrant jam, to serve

Method

1. Set aside a few of the herbs, then put the rest into a large bowl with the pork, beef, egg, milk, breadcrumbs and allspice. Add a good pinch of salt and pepper, then get your clean hands in there and scrunch and mix it well. Divide the mixture in half, then pat and roll each half into a sausage shape. Cut each one into 15 equal pieces, then wet your hands and roll 30 little balls. Keep wetting your hands as you go so you get nice round elegant meatballs. Put them on a large oiled tray, then cover with clingfilm and pop into the fridge for 1 hour to firm up.
2. When you’re ready to cook, put your largest pan on a medium heat and add a glug of olive oil. Once hot, add the meatballs and fry gently for 10 to 15 minutes, tossing occasionally, until they are golden brown.
3. Transfer the meatballs to a large plate. Spoon away any excess fat from the pan, then add the lemon juice, a splash of stock, the flour, the cream, a heaped tablespoon of lingon berry or berry jam and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and reduce until you have a nice consistency that will cling to the meatballs. Taste it, then season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Return the meatballs to the pan and move them around so they get coated in the sauce.
4. Serve your meatballs – eight per person is about right – drizzled with any lovely sauce left in the pan and with a few spoonfuls of warmed-up jam on top. They’ll go brilliantly next to mashed or crispy potatoes, or even rice. Sprinkle over your reserved chopped herbs and tuck in!

3. Beef Goulash – Hairy Bikers

Ingredients

• 1kg good braising steak, preferably chuck steak
• 1 tbsp sunflower oil
• 3 medium onions, cut into 12 wedges
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 tsp hot smoked paprika
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 1 beef stock cube (Oxo works well here)
• 600ml cold water
• 400g can of chopped tomatoes
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 red pepper
• 1 green pepper
• 1 orange pepper
• flaked sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper

 Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C/Fan 150°C/Gas 3½. Trim any hard fat off the beef and cut the meat into rough 4cm chunks. Season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
2. Heat the oil in a large flameproof casserole dish. Add the steak and fry over a high heat until nicely browned all over, turning regularly. Tip the onions into the pan and cook with the beef for 5 minutes until softened. Add the crushed garlic and cook for a further minute, stirring regularly.
3. Sprinkle both paprikas over the meat and crumble the beef stock cube on top. Add the water, tomatoes, tomato purée and bay leaves. Season with salt and pepper, stir well and bring to a simmer. Cover with a tightly fitting lid and transfer the dish to the oven. Cook for 1½ hours.
4. While the beef is cooking, remove the core and seeds from each pepper and chuck them away. Cut each pepper into chunks of about 3cm. When the beef has cooked for 1½ hours, carefully remove the dish from the oven. Stir in the peppers, put the lid back on and put the goulash back in the oven for a further hour or until the beef is meltingly tender.
5. Serve with small portions of rice and spoonfuls of soured cream if you like, but don’t be too generous – soured cream contains less fat than double cream but still has 30 calories per tablespoon!

4. Turkish Spiced Lamb Koftas with Minted Yoghurt

 

Ingredients

• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 tsp coriander seeds
• 500g minced lamb
• 1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
• 4 tbsp finely chopped fresh coriander
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp olive oil

For the minted yoghurt

• 200g natural yoghurt
• ½ cucumber, grated then placed in a tea towel and squeezed to remove any liquid
• 3 tbsp finely chopped fresh mint
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 lemon, cut into wedges

Method

1. Soak 8 wooden kebab skewers in water so they don’t burn when you cook them.
2. Put the cumin seeds and coriander seeds in a small dry frying pan without any oil and toast for 3 minutes over a medium heat, then remove from the heat and crush them in a pestle and mortar.
3. Place the minced lamb in a large bowl and add the crushed cumin and coriander seeds, the chilli and garlic. Mix with your hands to work all the aromatics into the meat. Lastly stir in the fresh coriander, season with salt and pepper and mix again.
4. Divide the lamb mixture into 8 balls and roll each ball between your hands to form a tube shape. Thread a tube on to each skewer and brush with the oil.
5. Heat a griddle pan over a medium heat and cook the koftas on it for 3–4 minutes on each side, until cooked through.
6. Meanwhile place the yoghurt, cucumber, mint, lemon juice and ground cumin in a medium-sized bowl and stir well.
7. To serve, place the koftas on a large serving plate with the minted yoghurt and lemon wedges on the side.

5. Union Jack Battenberg Cake – BBC Food

 

Ingredients

For the cake

• 175g/6oz softened butter, plus extra for greasing
• 175g/6oz caster sugar
• 3 free-range eggs
• 175g/6oz self-raising flour
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• blue food colouring

For the filling

• 300g/10½ icing sugar
• 150g/5¼oz butter, softened
• 6 tbsp good-quality strawberry jam

For the covering

• 500g/1lb 2oz white, ready-made marzipan
• 2-3 tbsp icing sugar, for dusting

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190ºC/375F/Gas 5. Grease and line a 20cm/8in square cake tin.
2. Beat together the butter and sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, a little at a time, until well combined. (If the mixture looks like it is curdling add a spoonful of the flour.) Fold in the flour. Gradually add a few drops of blue food colouring (don’t add too much or the cake will look green.)
3. Spoon the cake batter into the cake tin and level using the back of a spoon. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until golden-brown and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
4. Remove the cake from the oven, set aside to cool for five minutes, then turn out and cool, upside down, on a wire rack.
5. For the buttercream filling, beat the butter in a bowl until soft and smooth, slowly beat in the icing sugar. Continue to beat until fluffy.
6. To assemble the cake, slice the cake in half lengthways, place one sponge half on top of the other and trim off the edges, ensuring that both cakes are the same size.
7. Cut the cakes in half again lengthways to make four long rectangles.
8. Slice each rectangle diagonally along the length to make two triangular cakes
9. Spread each cut side of the triangle with buttercream and jam and sandwich together with the other triangle to make four rectangular sections. Wrap each rectangular section in clingfilm and chill for at least an hour.
10. Stack the rectangular sections into a square, so that the cross-section resembles a Union Jack
11. Assemble the bottom half of the cake first by spreading each of the long inside edges with buttercream and jam and sandwiching together. Repeat with the top layer and chill both cakes for one hour.
12. Finally, sandwich the two cakes together by spreading the top of the bottom layer and the bottom of the top layer with buttercream icing. Spread the bottom layer with jam and sandwich together. Chill the cake for one hour.
13. Meanwhile, roll the marzipan out on a surface dusted with icing sugar to a 5mm/¼in thickness, it should be large enough to cover the cake.
14. Warm a little strawberry jam and use this to brush the outside of the chilled cake.
15. Turn the cake upside down on the marzipan and brush the underside of the sponges with the jam.
16. Wrap the marzipan around the cake, pressing it gently onto the surface of the sponges, and press the edges together to make a firm join.
17. Turn back over with the seam underneath, trim a thin slice off each end and place on a serving plate. Take a slice from each end of the cake to neaten the edge and it should reveal a cake version of the Union Jack.