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Okay, so I like a challenge.
As I was sunning myself on holiday for my actual Prom, I decided (somewhat blithely) to host a 3-course dinner party for 8 of my school friends. Now I knew at the time what it entailed, (at least two days of prepping and several days of hazardous experimentation for a 3 course 6 meal menu with several components), but I hadn't banked on what meticulous planning it would take to run to time, an attribute I have been informed several times in my life that I am severly lacking. It was at this point that I decided that dinner parties should have a health warning: "please don't try this at home" etc, but as I had already done battle with a pasta machine and several soup strainers I decided to commence and hope for the best.
The one thing I would say about cooking for dinner parties is that it is extremely helpful to have two others involved in aiding the process, i.e. a washerupperer (parents are really very handy) and someone to help you oversee everything that is going in ovens and on cooker tops to make sure that you remember what you need on the go at precisely the right times. If you try to do it all by yourself, you will inevitably become exhausted and probably start having a conversation with the gammon by the end of the night, not that I have any experience of such matters.... I would also strongly advise to look at all of the cooking times of each component in every recipe before you embark upon it all, so you know exactly what time you need to be cooking each thing. As my mum is a lot wiser than me and invariably better with numbers, she wrote out a huge chart so that I could time my dishes to the point where I needed to plate up and I didn't forget the bits and bobs needed when cooking 2 different dishes alongside each other for starter, main and dessert.
Also the key to a successful dinner party (besides atmosphere) is PREPARATION. If there are things on the menu you can logistically prepare the morning, the day before, two days before, do it. You don't want to be desperately attempting to mend your broken pasta with 54 other things simmering away when you have to get out your starters in ten minutes. Even just weighing out ingredients or making sure you've chopped your carrots and grated your ginger makes you 100% less stressed and at least 75% less likely to create an enormous fire. Finally, keep calm. If you mess one or two things up, the world doesn't call a referendum on you and decide to send you into exile with only a torch and a loaf of bread for the rest of your days. Just stay relaxed and think on your feet. If you aren't calm and in control, guests can often pick up on a frenetic-near to nervous breakdown atmosphere, especially when there is a lot of glass smashing and swearing from the general direction of the kitchen. There are always creative solutions. For instance when I couldn't get my spun sugar to come off the back of a bowl in order to make sugar baskets I devised a spun sugar net as an equally decorous alternative and my friends were none the wiser. If small things go wrong, leave them out. Sometimes perfection is achieved by crafting the right balance. And most of all, despite the work and dangerous stress levels, enjoy yourself! You will feel guaranteed satisfaction in the plating up of your very own creations.
a) Vegetarian: Fresh pea soup with white truffle oil and parmesan crisps
This is a deliciously silky restaurant standard soup, the crisp salty Parmesan offsets the sweet peas and rich truffle oil. Definitely make a day in advance and fridge it.
RECIPE: for 4 (adjust for more or less)
recipe from the Masterchef cookbook
For the soup: Bring 1 litre (1 3/4 pints) of water to the boil in a very large pan (I used a pressure cooker without pressure cooking it) and add 2 tbsp salt and 2 tbsp sugar. When the water is at a rapid boil, add two 2lb bags of frozen petit pois and cover immediately. When the peas come back to the boil, cook until tender, 6-9 minutes. Drain the peas and save the cooking water. Place the cooked peas in a food processor or blender and pulse for 2 minutes, adding a little of the cooking water (you'll need the rest later). Pass the pea puree through a sieve, until it come out of the bottom as smooth and silky. This does take quite a lot of time and patience and you really do feel a bit like giving up, but keep at it, the soup is worth it! Add enough cooking water to it until you feel it is at the right consistency for a smooth, silky soup. Fridge it.
For the parmesan crisps: Make these a couple of days in advance, because they will keep and reduce the amount you need to do nearer the time.
Put 8 rounded tsps Parmesan cheese onto a lined baking tray. Flatten them into circles and bake for around 5-8 minutes at 180. They should be golden and look as if they have cooked enough to slide off your knife. Leave them to cool and transfer to a tin.
To reheat and serve: Gently reheat the soup. Add 4 tsp white truffle oil (look for this in delis that sell oils and breads or Italian restaurants selling similar items, such as Carluccio's). Serve with the parmesan crisps and garnish with single cream.
STARTERS
b) Meat: Chicken and asparagus tortellini, with asparagus spears in a hollandaise sauce
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A little warning: definitely practise rolling your pasta before the day. If you have never done it before and aren't used to the technique, it could cause more than a minor panic. Pasta is a bit like a sibling: if you don't know how to handle it it's very difficult, you punch it quite a lot, when you wind it up you have a few scraps, but if you persist it eventually does what you want. However if you follow the recipe to the letter (something that sounds obvious but sometimes my mind selectively misses bits and bobs), you will definitely have a few less tussles and better tasting pasta. I made my pasta on the morning of the dinner party day, any earlier and it would go dry, any later and it would cause pointless stress.
RECIPE: for 4 (adjust for more or less)
recipe adapted from The Masterchef Cookbook and The Times Cookery Book
To make the pasta: Combine 3 egg yolks and 2 whole eggs in a mixer/food processor using the dough hook. Add a little salt and 280g pasta flour (or I sometimes use strong white bread flour) one-third at a time << this is very important, if you add it all in one go it your processor won't cope and the dough will be too tough to handle and impossible to knead as it'll basically just fall apart. Once the mix is combined (looks and feels like it'll easily come together in your hands), remove and knead until the dough has a smooth texture. Wrap in clingfilm and rest for 30 minutes in the fridge.
For the mousse filling: Cut up a skinless chicken breast into cubes and blend in a food processor with knife blade until smooth. Add an egg until the mixture looks shiny and chill for 20 minutes. Once chilled, stir in 75ml double cream. Mix until fluffy and light, season and add a tbsp lemon juice.
Cut off the top 3 inches of 12 asparagus spears and save, cooking the rest of the stalks in boiling salted water for 5 minutes until soft. Drain and whizz in a food processor until smooth - if you can't quite get it completely smooth sieve the mix. Once cooled, stir into the chicken mousse.
To roll out the pasta: You'll need to obtain a pasta machine for this one, I borrowed one from a friend. You can roll it out with a rolling pin, but I suspect it takes a while longer and uses some quite technical ability. Knead the pasta until pliable. Set up your machine and put it to the widest setting. Make the pasta into a flat circle and put the bottom lengthways between the middle of the two rollers. Then wind it through. It should come out of the bottom. It may look perfect, it may look horrific, but the important thing to remember is, no matter how originally horrific your pasta looks, it will 9/10 times be beautiful by the time you've finished. Next, you need to feed your roll/scrap back through. Once you have done this, take each end of your pasta and fold them until they meet. Then put that back through the machine. If you originally had scraps, it should start to look a bit more workable. Then put your pasta back through without folding it. After this, you should fold your pasta as before, but switch the dial on the side to the next thinnest setting and put it through. Then put your pasta back through without folding it. Repeat and go through the settings until you have a long pasta sheet or long pasta sheets that are thin, but not too fragile (as below).
Cut into relatively big circles around 3in. Place the mousse in the middle of each tortellini (around 1 tsp each, not too much as you don't want it spilling out!) Then carefully brush egg white around the edge and fold in half, sealing and crimping the edges with your fingers so the filling doesn't spill out when cooking. Then brush a little egg white on both of the corners and pinch them together so that they kind of stick together upwards to seal. Cover and fridge until needed.
To make the hollandaise sauce: Hollandaise is known as a tricky sauce to master, but this method is easy enough for anyone to get one going and as it is made in a blender it is quick enough to make 'in the moment'. This method has never split for me, but if it does, the trick is just to add just a little hot water from the kettle.
Place 3 egg yolks in the blender with 2 tbsps lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Blend. Heat 100g butter until hot and gradually pour the butter onto the egg yolks until thick and sauce-like.
To put it all together: Cook the tops of the asparagus spears for 5 minutes in boiling salted water. Cook the tortellini for 5 minutes in boiling salted water. Heat the hollandaise. Plate up.
MAINS
a) Glazed gammon on a bed of mushroom duxelles, with a fondant potato and balsamic jus
With this dish, you can only really preprepare the glaze for the gammon (day before) and the balsamic jus which I made on the morning - and I have to say, the flavour is so complex but refined, it sits beautifully with the cured gammon, gorgeously soft duxelles and fluffy fondant potato. You will need to soak your gammon joints in cold water the night before you make it.
RECIPE: (duxelles, potato and jus for 4, gammon depending on what weight you purchase)
recipe adapted from the Masterchef cookbook and Baking Made Easy, Lorraine Pascale
Balsamic Jus - Combine 1 chopped garlic clove, 1 tbsp redcurrant jelly, juice of 1 lemon, 4 tsp balsamic vinegar, 4 sprigs of thyme and 12 vine-ripened tomatoes in a small saucepan and simmer for 30 minutes. Leave in a warm place for a while to infuse and strain/sieve before serving.
Gammon Glaze - Mix 1 clove garlic crushed in a garlic press, finely grated zest and juice of 1/2 an orange, 220g honey, 340g soft light brown sugar and 100ml soy sauce in a small pan, heat gently to dissolve the sugar, then simmer for 25 minutes until reduced and thickened. Put into a container and keep until it needs reheating.
Gammon - The gammon joint needs 25 minutes simmering time per pound (450g). I bought two 1.2lb joints so the simmering time was around 63 minutes, but you can just work out how long your joint needs simmering by the weight. Place in a clean pan and cover completely with water. Add 1 small handful black peppercorns, 2 bay leaves, 1 cm piece of grated ginger, 1 star anise and a few cloves, bring to the boil, then turn down the heat to a simmer, and simmer for however long it needs. Thirty minutes before the joint is ready, preheat the oven to 220 degrees.
When the joint is ready, remove from water and pat dry with kitchen paper. Remove the thick layer of skin from the joint. Score the meat diagonally both ways to form diamonds and stick a few cloves into the holes where the lines cross. Warm the glaze and pour over the meat. Cook the joint in the oven for 20-30 minutes until the top begins to brown, but watch it, because of the honey it can catch easily. Once the joint is cooked, remove from the oven and cover loosely with baking paper to rest.
Fondant Potato - Cut 2 large peeled Maris Piper potatoes into two slabs each (with flat top and bottom) an inch and a half thick. In a saucepan heat 3 tbsps oil and fry the potatoes for 4-5 minutes on each side until golden brown. Add 150g salted butter, 1 garlic clove, seasoning and 250ml water. Bring to a simmer, cover the pan and let the potatoes cook for 15-20 minutes or until soft in the centre. Drain and keep warm.
Mushroom Duxelles - Melt 50g salted butter in a large frying pan, add 3 large chopped shallots and 300g wild mushrooms/chestnut mushrooms and season. Cook over a medium to low heat for 8-10 minutes until the vegetables are brown and the water has evaporated.
To assemble, arrange fine slice of ham on a bed of the duxelles, add the fondant potato and pool with jus.
b) Vegetarian - Spiced Quorn (or sea bass) fillet on a bed of saffron and almond rice, topped with a carrot and onion seed salad with a tahini sauce
As a vegetarian myself, it frustrates me when it is sometimes assumed we cannot eat adventurous food. Any recipe can be taken and adapted so that it becomes vegetarian, which is what I did with the gorgeous Indian-style dish above. (Meat eaters who like the look of it, the Quorn fillets can be replaced with sea bass fillets, which also makes an amazing combination). Make the salad and tahini sauce on the morning, and all you have to sort then is the rice and fillets. You'll need to remember to defrost the Quorn fillets beforehand.
RECIPE: Serves 4 (adjust for more or less)
recipe adapted from the Masterchef cookbook
Carrot and onion seed salad - Fry 250g finely sliced onions in 2 tbsps vegetable oil until golden and caramelised. Put 250g grated carrots in a bowl and add salt and juice of 1/2 a lemon. Fry 1/2 tbsp each of mustard seeds and black onion seeds in 2 tbsp vegetable oil until they begin to pop. Tip over salad and mix well, then stir in the onions. Cover and set aside.
Tahini sauce - Put 1 tsp of salt in a mortar and pound with 1 clove garlic until smooth. Alternatively, crush in a garlic press and mix. Pour in 100ml tahini and mix with a whisk. Add the juice of a lemon and whisk until sticky, then whisk in 75ml warm water. When it looks like thick double cream, stir in 2 tbsps chopped flat-leaf parsley.
Saffron and almond rice - Put a pinch of saffron threads (available from some supermarkets and pretty much all Indian supermarkets) in 400ml vegetable stock. Melt 13g butter in a heavy based saucepan and fry 50g whole blanched almonds gently until golden. Remove and set aside. Put 13g more butter in the pan, add 200g basmati rice, 1 tsp baharat spice or if you can't obtain the baharat pop a couple of cardammon pods in - just don't forget to remove them before serving, stir, and add 50g raisins. Pour in the hot stock, season, bring to the boil, give it one more stir and then put the lid on and reduce the heat to as low as possible. Cook for about 15-20 minutes. Mix the fried almonds through.
Quorn fillets - (if using sea bass fillets, dry with kitchen paper). Rub 1 tsp ground cumin, 1/4 tsp cinammon and salt and pepper over 4 fillets. Gently heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a heavy frying pan and slide the fillet in. Turn the fillets every so often on each side until cooked.
To serve, place a mound of rice on the plates, then top with two crossed fillets, then the carrot and onionseed salad. Circle with the tahini sauce.
MAINS
a) White peach slices topping raspberry granita with raspberries, spun sugar, creme chantille and a cigarette russe
This is one of those desserts where it is mainly in assemblage. The raspberry granita (an Italian crushed fruit ice dessert) can be made 2 days in advance, just be ready to bash it up a bit, as can the cigarette russe (wafer like biscuit scrolled into a cigar shape), so that in the moment all that needs to be made is the creme chantille and spun sugar.
RECIPE: Serves 4, adjust for more or less
Recipe adapted from The Masterchef Cookbook
Raspberry granita - Blend 350g fresh raspberries with 125g caster sugar in a blender or food processor. Blend in 275ml water and pour into a freezer proof container (I used an old icecream box).
Freeze for 1 hour then stir the mixture with a fork, distributing the ice crystals evenly. Repeat 3-4 times until fully frozen. (A couple of minutes before you serve, remove from freezer so you can scoop it out without it being too frozen!)
Cigarette Russe - Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Beat together 60g unsalted butter with 75g icing sugar. Add 1 egg white and mix well, then stir in 60g plain flour until you have a smooth thick paste. Spread extremely thin circles of the mix on a baking tray lined with greased baking parchment, I'm talking what you'd spread on toast, if it is too thick, it just won't roll as I discovered when I put in my first tray which were delicious failures. (I also failed my 2nd attempt...) Work in batches of 2 as you won't be able to work any quicker once you retrieve them from the oven. Bake for 6-7 minutes until golden. Remove as quickly as you can and immediately slide them off and roll up into a cigar shape. Here I learned you either need asbestos fingers or need to be prepared to burn your fingers for the sake of culinary art... It is difficult, so don't be disheartened if you have a lot that don't work - you only really need one per person you are serving, so they don't need an 100% success rate.
Peaches - Put 2 large white peaches in warm water for 5 minutes, then peel off the skins and cut into segments.
You'll need to assemble your granita in a circle with the peaches on top just before your spun sugar is ready.
Creme Chantille - Whisk (electric whisk) 250ml double cream with 25g icing sugar and a couple of drops of vanilla essence until soft peaks (peaks just starting to hold when you take your whisks out but melt back into the bowl after a couple of seconds).
Spun sugar - Heat 100g caster sugar gently in a heavy pan without stirring. When it starts to become liquid and golden, tilt the pan to blend together and dissolve. Using a spoon, test the sugar until when you drop it from your spoon it hardens on a plate/surface. At this stage, fill your teaspoon with the caramel and flick it onto your serving plates to make golden decorations which will solidify into shape. Pretty soon after you should get to the stage where your caramel mix is starting to make thin strands of sugar. At this stage use your spoon to make spun sugar nets/meshes over the peaches on top of the granita.
Then just decorate with raspberries, spoon a little creme chantille to the side of your dish and top with a cigarette russe.
b) Simply Decadent Sticky Toffee Pudding
With this recipe in your hands, I guarantee you will make a lot of friends. (Or people coming round to your house slightly more often). It's moist and rich, and the sticky caramel sauce is absolutely unparalled. A spoonful of this is like a liquid cuddle - it's a bit of a silky, cosy number. I've never known anyone not to fall into the trap of the STP (possibly not the greatest sounding abbreviation I do concede). In fact, I would go so far as to say that it is probably the most "gorgeous" pudding of all time. Not that I'm obsessive or anything...
I made this the night before and wrapped it up in cling film and foil to save time, as it stays moist for a day- and then just reheated it and made the sauce on the night. Either make it the day before or on the morning.
RECIPE: Makes a tray
Recipe from Eat Vegetarian, Sam Stern
Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Grease a 28x18x2.5cm baking tray. Simmer 175g chopped stoned dates with 300ml water in a pan for 5 minutes. Add 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda. Set aside.
Cream 50g butter and 175g sugar with a wooden spoon or in a food processor until light and creamy. Drizzle 2 beaten eggs in gradually, beating hard. Stir in 175g self raising flour, the date mixture and 1 tsp vanilla extract. Spoon into tray. Cook for 30 minutes or until risen and springy.
For the sauce, melt 25g butter, 2 tbsps golden syrup and 175g soft brown sugar in a pan over low heat. Boil 1 minute (it should foam up a bit). Stir in 4 tsps single cream. Pour over pudding immediately and serve with single cream and vanilla icecream. Enjoy!
KITCHEN SONG OF THE WEEK: Dancing Song, Little Comets
