Saturday 8 January 2011

Happy New Year, Man About Brockley styleee...

Always fun to cook for people, I say. And what better occasion that when we have folks around for New Year. This year was fantastic - made some really good things (well, it's all relative I guess - I'm not quite at the level of my friends behind foodscape, for example...).

So, it's fun to learn how to do new stuff: this time the preparation started pretty early with dessert. Tired of buying lemon tarts, I set about making one from scratch (thanks to Donna Hay's Modern Classics 2)

So baking blind first of all...
Then making the lemon stuff, bain marie style

End result? Top notch. Very chuffed. Served with a red berry coulis on the day.


While all that was going on, I got the starter ready - spiced carrot & lentil soup. Gorgeous. It's all about the fried chilli flakes and cumin seeds, definitely. And of course carrots, lentils, veg stock and coconut milk..


The main course was insanely labour intensive, but absolutely worth the effort - it was an aubergine and squash moussaka.
To start with, bake the aubergines and squash in slices in olive oil and seasoning for about 20-30 mins. Aubergines are funny ol' vegetables - great for bulk, texture, and meatiness but just not really solo players. Interesting.


Then, while all that was going on, I made the tomato sauce - pretty standard stuff off tinned tomatoes, onion, garlic, sugar and more seasoning, letting it all simmer away for a while

Meanwhile, I gently steamed the spinach (there was so much of it, but as always, it reduces to so little...)

And finally, a bechamel, lots of it...

And all layered into a big dish and cooked for 40 minutes or so. One of the real highlights of the evening.

Served with a pilaff, and a celeriac and beetroot remoulade - just grated up with creme fraiche, mustard and olive oil.

Brilliant evening all round, although it went way way way too quickly and I mixed way too many drinks, but it was ace, and the dinner went rather well, I thought!

And in a little homage to childhood memories, during all the prep I had leftover pastry, so I made some little orange curd tarts with the spare, and some curd that's been in the cupboard for a while...

Happy new year, folks!






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