Marmite, pinenut and parmesan palmiersSweetcorn cakes with rice wine vinegar dip (the recipe for the sweetcorn cakes? Don't worry - it's in the book coming out soon.)
What an amazing idea - why go out to a comedy club when you can bring it to your own front room? I loved the idea of the last comdey night back in September - comedy doesn't get more intimate than all being in the same dining room - much more down to earth. Who needs a stage? So this time round, asked if I wanted to help out at this one I jumped at the chance.
When I was asked for menu ideas I thought along the lines of the last one where the food was a 'joke' - nutty soup, gnocci gnocci who's there, Stinking bishop & Wensleydale (Wallace & Gromit's fave cheese of course) & custard pie. What fun. But how to follow that?
Curry in a hurry - plantain curry
Driving between Lechlade and Blockley early on a foggy Monday morning in the middle of November (Lakes by Yoo looked just like you'd slipped in to a Tarkovsky film - delicious) I drove past a pub advertising a curry night - 2 for £10 and remembered my curry in a hurry. Adam still wants to do a rhyming menu one day.This one was plaintain curry that Ms M had made the day before - is much better the next day when the flavours have developed. Last time she had made it with banana and served in the skin (comedy - banana skins?). This time she tried it with plaintains. Because they are firmer it doesn't break down so much - better texture. This is a proper curry - takes a long time to make - but is so worth it. Unfortunately some of the guests couldn't make it to the evening due to snow affecting trains, so there were a few left to try. Lucky us! Real curry like this is such a world apart. What was that curry book again?
Moules in minutes - Thai style mussells with sweet potato wedges
But what could we do for a starter?.... I rolled through some other rhymes as I left the fog bank behind and the late autumn sun lit up the Cotswold hills. What about Meals in minutes >>>>> Moules in minutes. In the end we swapped it round so the moules became the main course. I had recently done a thai night, so still had the thai flavours alive and found this recipe. Mussells and chips? You can't beat a classic. I've still got this thing about sweet potato either grilled or chips after barbecuing them for the first time back in the summer. So these went in the aga earlier in the day so we could have the heat later in the evening for cooking the plaintains.Next time I do the thai me up thai me down salad I'll dry salting the carrots and mouli first to take off some of the water before adding the dressing. Live and learn!
A nice cup of brie
The cheese course was easy. I'd been wanting to try the cup of brie since January when I made the truffled macaroni bries. We went for this recipe. Rich, but seriously tasty. St. John's sourdough made the perfect accompaniment. It's true what they say about it - it's awesome. So need to try sourdough. Hopefully find time next year.
Brie came from Borough market - this was the real deal. Forget trying to do this with supermarket cheese.
English breakfast - black pudding with fried egg, ketchup & OJ
Dessert? Totally stumped. Couldn't think of any more rhymes - what rhymes with dessert or pudding? There is my 'Dessert Warefare' idea - but I'm saving that for another day. Then again pudding... pudding.... black pudding?I remembered this post from the British Larder last year, and how similar it was to our age old family Jul Kake recipe.
Christmas was a big cooking time in our house back in the day and when it came to Christmas cake, mum's Guiness cake was all very well, but if only for the marzipan and icing - the actual cake, I could either take or leave it. Leave it more often (sorry if you're reading this :') ). No - it was the Norwegian Jul Kake which I saved myself for - chocolate, creamed coconut and eggs layered with biscuts, dried fruits, nuts.... oh and fruit jelly sweets. We have Norwegian family friends and had spent Christmas over there when I was 5 and Adam 3 months in 6ft of snow. This chocolate Jul kake sure warms you up after hours of snowplay!
Tradionally we would layer these up in a 1/2 lb loaf tin so it looks nice and neat - but here it was just mixed all in one and rolled into a 'black pudding'.
What do you have with an english breakfast? Fried egg (aka fried egg sweets), a glass of OJ (aka orange sorbet - link to recipe here) and ketchup (aka raspberry coulis). Fun - no?
It's the real eggs in it that make the difference.
See more from the evening on Ms Marmitelover's blog post.
In London at Christmas Eve - why not try out the original Underground Restaurant? - http://www.wegottickets.com/event/92917
Oh yes - one last thing. That rice wine vinegar? Home made apparently. What an amazing flavour!
7 comments
Brilliant post! My post wasn't too good as I'd forgotten much of the details because of doing the Market two days layer! It's so nice to see it through other peoples eyes...thank you
'twas fun thanks.
I did think at the time it was quite adventurous for you to do both things in the same weekend! But there's no point in doing things by half lol.
Insanity more like. I'm still recovering.
Way cool dinner! Sounds like it was a blast!
Right on both accounts :) Always is at the Underground Restaurant!
That Curry in a hurry - plantain curry, has won me over, I am following you!
:-)
Happy Holidays
Alessandra
Ooh thanks! Plaintain curry was actually a MsMarmitelover speciality but anyway.
Holidays? What are they? :)
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