Norwich City F.C.

Norwich City ~ Canary Pudding

Introduction: It is thought that Norwich has long a connection with canaries from the 15th and 16th centuries when Flemish weavers imported the birds to East Anglia from the Dutch colonies in the Caribbean.

Preparation time: 10mins

Cooking time: 10 mins

Home kit: 6 small cups, a little mixing bowl

Away kit: 4 plates, knives and forks

Serves: 4

Ingredients

  • 2 eggs
  • 2 oz. flour
  • 2oz. butter
  • 2oz. caster sugar
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • butter for greasing

Method: Preheat the oven to 200oC

First half

Grease the six cups with butter.  Now beat the butter in the bowl to a cream, add the sugar, one egg and half the flour and a little more beating.  Beat in the other egg and the remaining flour and finally the baking powder.

Second half

Put the mixture into the cups and pop them in the oven (perhaps on a tray) for 10 minutes.

Full time results

Serve with lemon curd or jam.

Norwich City ~ Carrow roast turkey

Introduction: Carrow Road is Norwich City’s kickball stadium.  It’s named after the road it was built on in 1935. Norwich used to play at the appropriately named Nest on the Newmarket Road before that.

I’m looking to discover how a proper Norfolk turkey is cooked. I have asked my Mum how to do this but she has not been forthcoming thus far. Perhaps she will remember how her Mum did it, she was REALLY good at cooking.

Preparation time: 40 mins, this takes a surprisingly long time as man handling this big bird is awkward.

Cooking time: 25 mins per kilo and a 30 min finishing blast

Resting time: 30-60 mins

Home kit: a BIG roasting tin, a small mixing bowl, a BIG carving board, a BIG sharp carving knife and fork, a warmed serving platter, Some kitchen roll

Away kit: 4-6 plates and spoons

Serves: Kickball team

Ingredients

  • 1 turkey , about 4kg, giblets removed
  • 125g butter , at room temperature
  • 1 lemon , sliced thinly
  • 1 garlic clove, crushed
  • some olive oil
  • Maldon sea salt
  • 3 onions , halved, skins removed

Method: preheat the oven to 180oC

First half

Pat the turkey dry all over with kitchen paper. Mix the butter with the garlic and season well.

Gently push your fingers under the turkey’s skin, starting from the neck end of the bird, easing the skin away from the flesh. Spread the garlic butter under the skin on each breast then smooth the skin back into place.  Now slip the slices of Canary Yellow lemon up under the skin. Rub the turkey all over with olive oil and sprinkle generously with sea salt.

Put the halved onions in the bottom of the roasting tin to act as a trivet for the bird. Sit the turkey upside down in its breast so the juices from the back and legs keep it moist and cover generously with foil leaving plenty space around your bird, tucking under the tin to create a foil tent, an oven within an oven.

Cook for your calculated time, say 1 hour 40 mins for a 4kg bird.

Second half

Take it out and turn up the oven to 220oC. Remove the foil and turn the bird over and return to the oven for a further 30 minutes until golden. To test, pierce the fattest part of the thigh with a skewer, the juices should run clear, if pinkish return to the oven for 20 mins and test again.

Rest the turkey, covered loosely with foil, for at least 30 minutes and up to an hour before serving (strain the cooking juices and keep the onions to use in the gravy).

Full time results

Carving

Stick the cooked bird on the carving board and spear it with the carving fork on one side of the breast bone, taking care to disturb the meat as little as possible.

Legs off!

Using some kitchen roll bend the thigh outwards and cut through the hip joint removing the whole leg. Separate the thigh from the drumstick and stick on the serving plate. Repeat for the other leg.

Wings off!

Cut through the corner of the breast towards the wing. Again using kitchen roll wiggle the wing to locate the joint. Cut through the wing joint with a slice of breast. Place on the serving platter, someone will like it.

Breast meat last

Your bird should still be speared near the breast bone. Steady your bird. Carve the first slice off where you’d imagine the nipple to be if it were a breast. Keep the meat together by lifting each slice with the knife and fork rather than letting it fall. It should all be piling up on the serving plate by now. Niiice.

Canary rice – where it all began

My wife Sheils is a Norwich City supporter and, at the beginning of the 2012 – 2013 kickball season I decided to make her a dish that reflected her team.  I created Canary Rice.  Personally I love the taste of simple rice and peas, I have done since eating it in a Caribbean cafe somewhere.  That recipe was was not yellow, this one is…

Introduction: Norwich City FC are probably called “The Canaries” because they used to play at a disused chalk pit on the Newmarket Road called “The Nest” and the club’s chairman at the time (a keen breeder of canaries) dubbed them “The Canaries” while they were there in 1907. He also changed their strip to yellow and green. Their original nickname was “The Citizens”.

Preparation time: 5 Mins
Cooking time: 25 Mins
Home kit: medium saucepan with a tight fitting lid
Away kit: 2 bowls and 2 spoons
Serves: 2

Ingredients

  • 1 cup long grain / basmati rice
  • 1 1/3 cups water
  • 1 cup garden peas
  • Generous pinch of salt
  • 1 rounded tsp. turmeric

Method: preheat the oven to 90oC

First half

Wash the rice in at least 4 changes of water. Stick the water, rice, turmeric and salt into the saucepan. Bring to the boil, stir once, then lower the heat, cover with the tight fitting lid and simmer for 20 mins.

N.B. If you don’t have a saucepan with a tight fitting lid wrap up the lid in silver foil, that’ll make it fit!

Second half – put the bowls in the oven to warm

Sprinkle the cup of peas on the surface of the almost cooked rice close the lid and simmer for another 5 mins. Mix up the peas and the rice, scraping up the nutty bits from the bottom of the pan, leave to stand for 5 minutes.

Full time results

Serve in the warmed bowls.  Sheils likes a sprinkling of soy sauce too, but I don’t think that’s necessary.