September Suppers

Smoked-Paprika Roast Sweet Potatoes & King Prawns with avocado, roasted pepper & mint salsa – September scans p48

Blackberry & Almond Meringue Cake – September scans p 59

really wonderful dinner party dessert.  Took quite a lot longer to cook than in recipe but worth the wait!

Lasagne

sticky salmon – September scans p81.  great family meal – kids love it!

courgettes with chorizo & penne

 

 

 

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a Mexican evening

To celebrate our lovely new kitchen and dining room, we had 8 of our most lovely friends round for a Mexican feast!  Last year I had been to London with E for a day’s shopping and we had chanced upon past Masterchef winner Thomasina Miers’ restaurant Wahaca  in Covent Garden.  We had the most amazing lunch and were filled with enthusiasm for real Mexican food rather than that which Old El Paso passes off as Mexican via Sainsbury’s.

Finally just in time for E’s birthday Thomasina published a book on the subject entitled ‘Mexican Food made Simple’.  So the perfect birthday present accompanied by a selection of Mexican ingredients (a bit too perfect actually as someone else had already bought her the book – but that’s another story!).  I of course couldn’t resist and treated myself to the book along with a bag of cornmeal and a can of chipotles en adobe.

With 10 around the table it was the perfect excuse to make lots of dishes so i had the chance to experiment with a selection of recipes from the book:

Coconut Ceviche

Fiery Prawn & Mango Salad

Summer Courgette & Corn stuffing for Tacos

Fresh Tomato Salsa

with Homemade Tacos

Chicken & Chorizo in an Almond Mole

Rice

Vanilla Cheesecake

Pineapple & Mint Carpaccio

This was my first attempt at making ceviche and we are fortunate to have an excellent fishmongers nearby so the sea bass that I used was super fresh.  Although I only “cooked” the fish in the lime juice for a couple of hours it was done to perfection.  I would have preferred a bit more fish in relation to the other ingredients but otherwise it was a really nice dish.

The mango & prawn salad was the star dish of the night.  A delicious combination of cous cous, wild rice, red onion, mango, prawns, radish and herbs it looked absolutely beautiful with so many different colours and textures and did not disappoint at all on flavour.  definitely one to repeat and would be lovely as part of a summer buffet when prawns are available cheaply!

The courgette & corn filling was an obvious choice at this time of year as the courgettes were beginning to crop.  No sweetcorn yet so i used frozen kernels as they are miles fresher than any whole cobs from the supermarket.  Topped with some crumbled feta it made a great vegetarian choice.

Although my own tomatoes are not ready, I was able to get British tomatoes from the supermarket so did not feel too guilty making this classic which quite frankly the table wouldn’t have looked right without.  Nothing earth shatteringly new, just delicious sweet tomatoes zinged up with chilli, coriander & lime juice.

The real experiment of the meal was the home made corn tortillas which I made in advance the night before and re-heated in the warming drawer.  I used authentic masa harina (maize flour), mixing 900g with 4 tbls olive oil, 2 good teaspoons salt and 1.1litres of hand hot water.  This made a firm dough which rolled out easily between 2 sheets of bake-o-glide into 10cm circles.  I cooked some in my pancake pan and some on the simmer top of my hob, both of which were fine with none of them sticking.  The tortillas looked great – not perfect rounds but rustic looking with nice charred bits.  Taste wise, I’m not so sure.  More salt was definitely needed and, I think more water.  I added less than the recipe as I was nervous that the dough would be too wet, but in hindsight, I think a moister dough would have rolled into neater circles and would have been nicer to eat.  They went down well and nobody complained but P & I in food critic mode felt there were improvements to be made!

The main course was really tasty.  The preparation took quite some time but was easy to do in advance, with the final stages quick enough to do just before serving.  The small amount of leftovers also froze really nicely so would be a good dish to prepare in bulk.

The cheesecake was a baked version with the lightest texture I have eaten, using a mixture of cream cheese, double cream and soured cream together with 6 separated eggs, the whites giving the lovely lightness.  The recipe called for pineapple caramel, but I chose to make carpaccio with some mint sugar to zing it up.

All in all, a great evening with great friends in a great new kitchen!

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