Christmas festivities

Christmas begins for me with the annual lunch for my Reading Group - and this year, I think I can honestly say, it was pretty triumphant - despite one of two glitches with a "tried and tested" cheesecake.

I wish I had taken a photo, but I never do.  We had:

Inverawe smoked salmon roulade, with small home made seeded rolls
Duck legs in casserole with marsala and mushrooms, pommes etuvees, red cabbage and green beans
The veggies had a butternut, sage and goatcheese tart
Pudding was chocolate orange cheese cake, with a tropical fruit salad.
There was cheese (Shropshire red, Jura, Vintage gouda, camembert and montagnolo affine) all courtesy of Sainsburys, cheesemongers to the gentry.

It was a thoroughly delicious meal.  I think there was a bit too much filling in the salmon roulade - the outside of which was made of egg and courgette with herbs (needed more mint) and parmesan...maybe lemon zest too.

The duck legs were great - they are very inexpensive at the cash and carry, but I used about £3 worth of marsala in the recipe - so not such a bargain!  Still, a good one for dinner parties.

The cheesecake was mystifying - the cheese mix was divided into 2 - chocolate and orange, and one was meant to dollop them into the case and marble them together... the mix was so thin it didn't dollop - and then it took 2 and a half hours to cook - the recipe said 45 mins... but it was utterly delicious, even if the edible glitter I bought looked more like showy  demerara sugar!   The tropical fruit salad was gorgeous too.  Nice change from the regular - probably the most expensive item on the menu!

The 1,001 Portions

I cooked way too much - even though I refrained from making M'amoul and a second type of vine leaf...

The menu was served in several courses, the composition and order of which changed completely half way through, because I wanted to get out of the kitchen and join the party.

1.    Cacik, baba ghanoush and Morroccan carrot dip with pitta and olives.
2.    Tabbouleh and cucumber salad with labneh
3.    Spinach and cheese pastries
4      Deep fried mussels, deep fried prawns with Teradot sauce - fish sticks
5      Imam bayildi, stuffed vine leaves.
6     Chicken drumsticks in garlic and lime, meatballs, orange salad, chopped salad, kibbeh.
7     Barbousa with coconut, baklava
8     Turkish coffee

I also provided halloumi for Sheree as a non-fish eater, and a burgul pilav which I forgot to serve!

The puddings were both exquisite, so were the mussels and prawns - but there were way too much of both of those.  The Moroccan carrot dip was fab, and my cacik is now perfect (always remember to salt the cucumber after grating it and get rid of moisture).  I used a different kind of filo for the spanakopitta - so they weren't as nice and buttery as usual...  The vine leaf stuffing was quite nice, but prefer using raisins and pine nuts rather than tomato and dill.  The imam b, was not as nice as I remember - I think I've done a different recipe in the past, or re-used the aubergine flesh in the stuffing - which is nicer...   I forgot to dress the chopped salad - but this is good, because we can re-use it!

To be honest, for me, the best thing was how fantastic the gazebo looked with all its hangings and Stella's rugs on the lawn.  Lots of cushions, but people preferred chairs if they could get them.

The Next Pop-up will be....

A MIDDLE EASTERN MIDSUMMER FEAST

Lounge on silken cushions, in a pavilion decked with rugs and hangings – pause idly to snatch a delicacy from heaped bowls of food prepared with the finest spices, sip sherbert from exquisite glasses, while you gaze at the stars of the southern sky and your camels  – in Ramsgate???!!

Where: 15 Grove Road, CT11 9SH

When: Saturday 21^st June  from 7.30

How:  Book now, spaces are limited!  Bring your own sherbert, extra cushions, and (this is the desert at night we’re talking about) a cardigan.  ( And some cash, to pay for these exquisite pleasures).  Feel free to wear suitably Eastern dress!

Bubbles!

Yesterday - or was it Thursday? - I succumbed.  I mixed up a spoon of easiblend yeast with some warm water and sugar - and left it for a few minutes.  Then I added it.  I didn't stir in - because there was a little blob of yeast on the surface and I wanted to give it a chance.

This morning I had a look - there were large flaccid bubbles on the surface - the blob of yeast had grown - the flowers had all risen to the top.

We have fermentation!  And now we are going great guns.... so, all I need to know is whether I now count the 3 weeks from last Sunday or from Friday?  Or what.  Off to look at all the forums again I suppose.

Elderflowers - part 2

Yesterday I made the elderflower cordial - by adding a kilo of sugar to the strained juice, heating gently to dissolve it, and adding a generous teaspoon of citric acid. Today, having run some old sherry and port 0.5l bottles through the dishwasher I bottled the liquor.  Kirstie came over and we drank a lot, it was very delicious.  I hope it will keep - I think that's what the citric acid is for.  It tastes slightly wilder than the commercial ones, but it's also very sweet - perhaps too sweet.  I wonder if I should make more as Christmas presents - I'm thinking ahead of course. Will it keep that long?

A very frothy image above - positively bridal!

The champagne


I looked at the vat of champagne mix - disappointingly no sign of fermentation - despite my having picked the flowers on a hot sunny day - perhaps it was too early in the day (about midday) - which is meant to encourage plenty of wild yeast.   I decided, in the interests of "self-sufficiency" to add some of my own sourdough mix, rather than using commercial yeast, or going and buying brewer's yeast.  I mixed it in - then added another teaspoon or so and drizzled it over the heads.  A few bubbles started to rise - I was encouraged.   When I came back later it was all looking pretty inert again.   However, the very helpful forum on the River Cottage website (where I plucked these recipes) says sometimes you have to look for small brown patch on the surface, rather than bubbles, and this indicates fermentation is beginning.  I am now feeling rather impatient about fermentation, but then again, when I think how long it can take to get a sourdough starter going perhaps I'm being silly.

I've also discovered that the idea of bottling it after 6 days is crazy - it needs 3 weeks - but then again, I could probably bottle some on June 13th to take to my father's party - unless it is very very unready.  I am now wondering whether I need demi-johns and valves etc. Apparently it is perfectly OK to make it in large containers without lids - not sure about stirring though?  I did stir in all the sourdough mix eventually.

Frugality points
I think this scores a couple of frugality points - 1 for foraged foods, 1 for re-use of old bottles, 1 for using sourdough instead of commercially sourced yeast.  

Elderflowers

Every year I swear I am going to make elderflower cordial, but I am defeated because I cannot obtain citric acid.  Last year I got some from the wholefood place I use occasionally - and missed the season somehow. So this year I put it in the calendar.

We went to Pegwell Bay where there are plenty of the bushes, unfortunately a lot of them are ringed by tangles of brambles and nettles, long grass and alexanders - but eventually we picked enough for cordial, and for elderflower champagne.

Elderflower champagne - part 1

15 elderflowers heads, 700g sugar, 4 lits hot water, 2 lits cold water, zest and juice of 4 lemons, 2 tbsps of white wine vinegar.

Dissolve the sugar in the hot water, add the elderflowers, lemon juice and zest and the winegar, add a further 2 litres cold water. Stir to make sure everything is mixed in, cover with a muslin cloth, leave in a cool spot.

This is how far I have got.  Within 2 days I must see if the mixture is going frothy (fermenting) - if not, one adds a pinch of yeast (I do hope Doves's Farm easiblend is OK - it's all I've got - unless I add a spoon of the sulky sourdough!).  After a total of 6 days frothing one simply strains and bottles it.  Et voila!   Except that apparently, that is when the fun begins - but I shall deal with that in a future post.

Elderflower cordial - part 1

Take 25 Elderflower heads, clean, insect free, put into a large container, cover with the zest of one orange and two lemons, pour 1.5 litres of boiling water over it and leave for 24 hours or so.   The next stage involves industrial quantities of sugar (1 kg actually) and the citric acid, and some boiling - but again, this will be dealt with in a future post.

The essential ingredient, apart from the elderflowers is an enormous quantity of steriliised bottles.  Because I know the champagne is temperamental and explosive I shall be using old plastic bottles and giving the liquid plenty of space to expend.  I have a feeling that plastic milk flagons will be quite good for this.  We shall see.