The Very Difficult Dinner Party

My sister was in town this weekend.  One of our favourite pastimes is cooking together.  There’s a bit of an untold ritual to it – it begins with magazines and coffee.  More specifically, food magazines (from the piles of Olive, Delicious, Good Food, Donna Hay, and Bon Appetit food magazines) and 3-6 cups of coffee, dependent on how inspired we are by what we see.  This time, my sister tasked us with a challenge: Let’s only cook very difficult things! – the exclamation point reflecting her excitement.  And so, we pored through the magazines, only stopping on recipes labelled “For the confident cook,” “A bit of effort,” or the more direct “Very Difficult.”

3.5 cups of coffee later, we’d settled on a menu for our Very Difficult Dinner Party:

Emmental gougéres (delicious mag, from The Skinny French Kitchen by Harry Eastwood)

Braised artichokes with lemon hazelnut praline, cherry tomato sauce and a chard, potato, and Puy lentil cake (delicious mag, from Irish chef Denis Cotter)

Roquefort soufflé on a salad of watercress, poached pear, and toasted pine nuts (really a combination of recipes we found online)

Poached salmon with pink grapefruit and basil sauce served with asparagus (Good Food, GordonRamsay)

Limoncello Meringue Pie (Olive, from Janine Ratcliffe)

Menu set, it was time for the next part of our ritual – Borough Market, via Gordon’s Wine Bar.  After a leisurely pitstop in Gordon’s for a cheeky afternoon glass of cava, we walked along the southbank to Borough Market.  There, we inhaled the atmosphere – full of tantalizing smells and drool-worthy food sightings – and successfully came away with loads of fruit and veg for our very difficult menu.

Our dinner party wasn’t until the next day, so we enjoyed a relaxing night in, trying our hand at creating some new recipes. 

We embarked on cooking our menu at 3 o’clock the next day, telling guests to arrive anytime from 7pm – and I quickly learned just how inefficient I am in the kitchen, especially compared to my Cordon-Bleu-trained sister.   Here’s how the day went:

3pm – START THE VERY DIFFICULT COOKING, 4 HOURS TIL GUESTS ARRIVE

Me: I’ll start on the artichoke! It says it takes 1.5 hours to make and 1 hour to cook.

Sister: I’ll make the limoncello tart!

 base of the limoncello tart

 

 the journey begins on the artichoke dish, later deemed my kitchen Everest.

4pm – TART CHILLING AND SALAD MADE, 3 HOURS TIL GUESTS ARRIVE

Sister: I’ve made the limoncello tart (except the meringue), poached pears, toasted pine nuts, made a salad dressing – how are you doing Steph?

Me: I’ve peeled one artichoke.

Sister: Do you need any help Steph?

Me: (grumble grumble grumble)

Sister: Do you want me to make the Emmental Gourgeres?

Me: (slightly defeated) Sure. 

 

It's even prettier than the picture in the magazine!!

5pm –  GOUGERES DOUGH MADE, TART COMPLETE, 2 HOURS TIL GUESTS ARRIVE

Sister: So gougeres dough is done, I’ll start on the soufflés!

Me: I've peeled three artichokes. And while I've started on some other parts of the artichoke dish, I've also started to lose the will to live.
Sister: That's nice Steph - keep up the good work!

 Making the praline (with help from sis)

Lemon Hazelnut praline which gets blitzed in food processor and sprinkled onto artichoke dish)

 

(Puy Lentil and Potato mix to be wrapped in cavolo nero, instead of chard)

6pm – SOUFFLES PREP COMPLETE, 1 HOUR TIL GUESTS ARRIVE

Sister: So I’m done with the soufflé prep.  I’ll cook the gougeres and start making the Hollandaise for the salmon if that’s okay? Do you think you can work on anything else besides the artichoke Steph?

Me: The artichoke is very demanding!!  It needs lots of attention.  I’m enslaved. 

Sister: (Just stares at me)

Me: I’ll make the water to poach the salmon and cut up the grapefruit and basil.

6.45pm – I text friends and ask them to be late – “we” are very behind on our very difficult menu

7pm – ARTICHOKES FINALLY IN OVEN ALONG WITH LENTIL CAKES, HOLLANDAISE IN PROGRESS, 30 MINUTES TIL FRIENDS ARRIVE

 

(yep, this is all I have to show for - thankfully it was very tasty)

(yummy roquefort souffle)

7.30pm – EVERYTHING IS FULLY PREPPED/COMPLETED FOR THE NIGHT! (NO THANKS TO ME) – GUESTS ARRIVE

So not quite as smooth as it might have been had I started a little earlier.  Not only did it take me a whopping 4.5 hours to make artichokes, I also missed out on learning how to make the perfect Hollandaise (my sister didn’t even have to look at a recipe – she really sickens me sometimes).  The poached salmon with grapefruit/basil hollandaise was excellent - and really simple if you're only in charge of poaching the salmon.  Somehow I failed to get a picture of this one, but I'd do it again!  The limoncello meringue pie was standout - that recipe has made it into my binder for future use.

Was it all delicious? YES!  Would I make it all again – not on your life! …  especially that artichoke (despite it being very tasty).

Borough Market - The Best Day Out in London, hands-down

I get it that visitors to London have a few sights that they need to see to check the box - Westminster Abbey / Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Tower of London... there's also likely a few quintessential English foods and drinks that need to be tried such as fish & chips, a Sunday roast, and some English lager.  But I'd be hard-pressed to think of a better day out in London than making a trip to Borough Market.  A food market, yes, but like no other I've seen before - vendors from all over Europe set up stalls here and it's open to the public Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays (check the hours before you go).  I recommend getting there on Saturday before 11am or be prepared for some serious crowds.  There's the direct way of doing Borough Market (get to London Bridge Station, and walk to market), or the recommended indirect way of doing it - taking in some great views of London and seeing some parts of the city that could otherwise be missed.

So here's the recommended Best Day Out in London, rated as such by sample size of 1.
Get to Waterloo Station and then head to the Thames.  Stay on the southbank and head East along the water.  You'll pass by the Royal Festival Hall (you can pop in for a takeaway tea or coffee if needed), then the National Theatre which hosts outdoor theatre/art installations from July-September in an area called Watch this Space (http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/wts), eventually you'll pass a lovely alfresco secondhand book store - nice for a brief wander.  Continue walking along the bank, taking in sights of London to the north such as St Pauls.  You'll eventually pass the Tate Modern and Shakespeare's Globe Theatre...  the Thames path ends at a nice pub called Anchor Bankside.  Follow all the rest of the people weaving their way down a road that continues eastward... after you pass London Dungeon, take a right and you are at Borough Market.  It might not look like much from that first angle you're entering - but 2 minutes of exploring it will start to enthuse the senses!
I could write several entries about all of my favourite stalls - but here's some pics I took on my first visit there to whet your appetite.

You can sample some prepared foods there or take some of the fresh meats, seafood, cheeses, and produce home for a scrumptious meal!  Once your senses are satiated, you can head back to the pub on the river (Anchor Bankside), grab a beverage and sit on the water for a bit of relaxation.  Once refreshed, head back along the Thames path (the way you came) until you get back to the Tate Modern  You might want to pop in this museum as much of it is free and worth a look, even if to ponder how some pieces made it into the permanent collection.
Next, walk across the Millennium Bridge, called the wobbly bridge by locals as it was improperly built the first time round and wobbled to the point that they had to close it down for some years before re-opening to the public.

You might wish to pop into St Pauls for a look - they do charge you to have a wander but it's worth it if you brave the steps to the top for a stunning panoramic view of London.
Get to the Thames path along the northbank and now head West until you get to Embankment Tube Station. Walk through it and head up the small road, typically filled with pedestrians and the occasional car.  On your right, look out for Gordon's Wine Bar - London's oldest wine bar. After braving the narrow steps down, head to the bar for a glass of wine and then try hard to get a seat in the "cave" - you will know it when you see it.  After 3pm on any day, the cave tends to fill up with people - but if you lurk near one of the entries to it, you shouldn't have to wait too long for a seat - it's well worth the wait (and the shame of being a lurker)!

And this concludes the Best Day Out in London - after all that walking and wine drinking, a siesta is highly recommended... no, we're not in Spain, but with places like Borough Market and the atmospheric Gordon's, you won't feel like you're in London either.