Mid-Winter Christmas

Mid-Winter Christmas and Emma's triumphant return was a raging success! The menu was as follows...

Nibbles: Chips and dip, cheese and crackers.

Main: Roast chicken, roast vege selection, couscous and roasted vege salad, green salad, potato gratin, spanakopita, lasagne. Oh yes, and nut roast - I keep forgetting the nut roast - according to Emma, it was the star of the show...hmmm.

Pudding: Chocolate eclairs, ice-cream and fruit salad, chocolates.

Well I'm not sure what happened to the ice-cream and fruit salad (I think we were too full) but everything else was spectacular! Thanks to Helen, Emma and Triona for allowing me to delegate parts of the meal. There might have been some spontaneous combustion had I attempted to do it all! Anyway, I did a chicken, couscous, potato gratin, spanakopita, lasagne and the eclairs.

The finished dishes, ready to be transported to the Love Nest

Note the strawberries marinating in Cointreau too. Mmmm! I admit I tried a few, just to make sure they were ok. Quality controll you know...very important...


There was some morphing into Delia Smith as lists of lists were drawn up. Then there was a list of time frame broken down into half hourly segments...I shan't go on, but you get my drift. I was hoping there'd be some magical change into Nigella but this appeared not to happen.

Cooking went smoothly and was completed by 11:30, thus allowing me to enjoy the rest of the day. Until it was eclair time. Didn't want to do these too early as I figured they'd get soggy. I will admit there were 30 eclair cases.... however the full number didn't quite make it to the party... there were a few breakages! I decided to pipe the cream into the cases as I figured it would be easier - and it was. Got a big snaplock bag, filled it with the whipped cream, snipped the corner off and piped away happily.

Note the artfully placed holly - I impress myself no end

Saturday was the first time I'd ever made a lasange! I've made the mince and bechamel many times before, albeit seperately. I was a bit nervous as to how it'd turn out as when I was assembling the bad boy it seemed a bit sloppy, but it was actually fine once it had cooled. We reheated it just prior to serving and it still held together nicely. As requested (thanks guys!) here's the recipe I made up as I went along

Lasagne - Sophie style

Meat sauce:

Oil for browning

500 gm (ish, can't remember how much I used) mince

Garlic, crushed

Tomato paste, a couple of tablespoons

Jar of good quality bolognese sauce

Salt and pep

Brown the mince and garlic, drain off any excess fat. Add tomato paste and bolognese sauce. Season. Cook slowly over a low heat for ages (I simmered slowly for 2.5 hours).

Bechemel sauce:


Butter 2tbsp

Flour 2 tbsp

Cream 1/2 c

Milk 1/2 c

Grated cheese, generous handfull

Salt and pep

Melt butter, add flour to make roux. Cook out for a min, add milk and cream. I used a whisk to ensure there weren't any lumps. Season. Now, I know bechemel doesn't traditionally have cheese but I was concerned it wasn't thickening enough so I chucked some in! Worked a treat. If you are more patient than me then you'll be able to add your milk slowly. I got a bit excited and added it too quickly.

Assembly:

Put a layer of the meat sauce in the bottom of a baking dish. Pour a layer of the bechemel over. Place the lasagne sheets on top. Keep layering until you reach the top of the dish. Finish with a layer of grated cheese. Don't do what I did and overfill your dish - there were some interesting hissing noises coming from the oven that alerted me to this. Cover with foil and bake at 180 degrees for hmmm,45 mins or so. I didn't actually time it, just guesstimated and checked after awhile.


In other news, this Sunday I'm off to Rick Stein! My wonderful mother found tickets were heavily discounted and snaffled some for the family. I'm thoroughly overexcited about this as it was something I was desperate to go to but couldn't really afford. I'm hoping I'll get to see some amazing recipes from the Steininator - he's quite a legend really. I hope he brings Chalky - is Chalky still even alive? I would be very sad if he wasn't. He's a great side-kick.

August has arrived and with it the imminent arrival of Wellington on a Plate - hooray! I'm all booked in for Cocktails and Cupcakes at Martha's Pantry and am eagerly looking forward to Food Heroes at Moore Wilson's - last year was amazing! What an exciting month there is ahead of me.