Listening to: Hera Bjork 'Je ne sais quoi', from Eurovision 2010 (Iceland)
Cups of coffee achieved: 4... hungover, post dinner party clearup
This one is for Lois 'Peaches Goyledof' Howarth as she said I should start a food blog. I write to you in pyjamas, snuggled up in the most ridiculous dressing gown known to man, well, potentially woman as its bright pink. My coffee cannot be strong enough and neither can my headache - my usual hangover relief cure of Eurovision songs and cola didn't work, strongly considering hair of the dog.
So, last night I did a dinner party for seven - my biggest dinner party number yet. I also managed everything single handedly, as my dear mum is still recovering from her broken arm she acquired during a drunken New Years Eve walk/stumble down Kentford high street, ha. Having never cooked for seven before, well, not in a 3-course 'lets get the special glasses out' situ, I was slightly worried, so did what any discerning cook does on such a grand occasion - cook 3 recipes i've never tried before, all whilst getting slowly pickled. My food along called for a bottle of red (for the coq au vin) and a significant measure brandy (for both the coq au vin and Quercyan apple cake) and by the time I had enjoyed cook's treats, another bottle of red was opened and the brandy bottle was chucked in the recycling. Oh well. Call it my tribute to Keith Floyd.
Both recipes actually came out rather well. This is after I had a huge paddy over the fact my weighing scales weren't weighing properly... every kitchen utensil suddenly was preceeded with an 'f', as my mum would say. My coq au vin recipe was a mixture of many i've seen. My favourite being John Torode's and the Two Fat Ladies who suggest marinading the chicken overnight in the wine. I decided to joint a whole chicken which I won't do again - the leg meat was beautifully tender, but the breast was a bit tough. Next time i'll use just thighs... or maybe legs. I'm really not a breast man.
My triumph, even though I nearly flung it across the room when I tripped over coming to the table, was my Two Fat Ladies Quercyan Apple cake or as my dad called it 'the sleeping cat' or 'turd'.
Essentially it is made by pulling out pastry till it is as thin as cigarette paper, and then plastering it with brandy, sugar, apples and all manner of wonderful things, rolling it all up, and twisting it up into the 'cat', 'turd', or 'snail shell' as i prefer to call it. I agree with Clarissa Dickson Wright that it is a labour of love - the pastry prep took around an hour, but it was bloody worth it. Yum. It turns into a kind of strudel type dessert, with alternating layers of buttery pastry and sweet apples, all of course doused in far too much brandy. Recommended to anyone wanting a 'wow' dessert. Unfortunately an 'after' picture doesn't exist, as the cooked cake didn't exist for more than about half an hour. Bless it. I'll certainly be making it again, and you can follow the fabulous Clarissa here on youtube telling you exactly how - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi2S_Y692KY I wonder if working scales would create such a great cake. We'll see when the new ones come next week... Funny how the scales got one ingredient in particular completely wrong... the brandy.
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