Singing for her supper
MARION MCMULLEN
EVITA and Cats star Elaine Paige has plenty to sing about when it comes to her favourite food. She says: “The recipe I grew up with would be my nana’s steak and kidney pudding – I can taste it now! We had a big house in East Barnet, Hertfordshire, and my parents turned the upstairs into a flat for my grandparents. For Saturday lunch, my grandmother would make her steak and kidney pudding ... as requested by me and my dad.
“The pudding was such a business because you had to make the suet, you didn’t buy a packet mix. Nana would line a basin with suet, then put in the steak, kidney and gravy, and tie the whole thing up in muslin. It steamed for hours on top of the cooker. You had to keep watch over it and continually top up the water to make sure the saucepan didn’t dry out. It was a real labour of love.”
Elaine has sang all over the world leading to a love of international cuisine.
“I first went to the Far East many years ago, and it’s one of my favourites cuisines to cook at home,” she says. “A concoction I do is salmon with soy sauce, sweet chilli sauce, sesame oil, root ginger, pak choi, spinach and sesame seeds. You also need mirin (Japanese rice wine) or, if you’ve got it to hand, some dry sherry. I am always trying to hang onto my figure and this is a healthy recipe that doesn’t make you bloat.”
FOR more, see the November issue of BBC Good Food magazine on sale now.