Dinner party experiments and secrets, oh and steak dinner too!!!

Tonight we thought we'd practise the starter for our dinner party in a few weeks and that's the Chilled melon soup. I feel its one of the hardest to achieve for the dinner, as its all about the depth and balance of flavours.

Stuart Gillies Head chef at Boxwood Cafe said that secret to this dish is a good rich stock , as this is the basis for this soups depth. We've cheated a bit, as we just don't have the time or the kitchen to do a 12hr stock that can be reduced and reduced all day. So we've bought an unusual rich vegetable stock called Vecon and doctored it with bashed lemon grass and torn basil. If Delia Smith endorses using bought ready made components then so can we!!!! He the mans feels there is no shame in doing this , because were not professionals and were not trying to achieve Michelin stars here , just nice well made food.

I'm writing this as we make it and the smell of the stock right now is amazing , really fragrant and reminiscent of Thailand.

If you want to try this , the quantities are not exact as were just getting a feel right now.

We've bought :

2 Cantaloupe melons , (orange flesh)
bag of fresh basil
a stalk of lemon grass
Creme fraiche
3 tspns Vecon vegetable stock - found in Holland and Barrats. They're really good for obscure and unusual ingredients.
100-200mls sunflower oil or a very very generous slug

Take a litre of water and add 3 tsp of the stock, add in a handful of basil leaves torn, and the lemon grass stick bashed

Start to boil and reduce down , this will help infuse all the herbs. It took about 10-15 mins and reduced by half. Remove from hob and decant into a jug to pop in the freezer to start the chilling process.

Whilst this is happening scoop out the flesh of the melon

Take the rest of the basil and the sunflower oil and blend together to create a runny paste. This will be used to garnish the top of the soup.

We've now blended the melon and realised that Stuart Giles probably sieves it , so were giving that a try right now! It removes all the fibrous parts and makes a much smoother liquid.

After about 20 mins remove the stock mix from the freezer and add 2 ladles of it to the melon mix, taste as you go along to make sure you get a good balance of the 2 flavours ; sweet and savoury. Add in 2 tbls of the creme fraiche and blend well with a hand whisk , to combine and froth. You should have a pale peach liquid in front of you, ours is a bit dark ,due to the colour of the stock, as its a very dark brown. I think if we were to make the stock ourselves , (if we can face it that is), we could control the colour a bit more with the ingredients we use. I may be on the hunt for another well made pre cooked version , possibly Joubere's, although it doesn't have the intensity of flavour that the Vecon one has.

Pour into the jug and return to the freezer for another 10-15 minutes to further chill.

After this time , ladle into a bowl , pour in the centre a small dollop of the basil puree and serve.

The Boxwood version serves it with some small bite size pieces of Iberico ham in the bottom before pouring it in to increase the savouriness and compensate for the melons sweetness. All adding to a better finish on the taste.

This is a deconstructed version of the classic Parma ham and melon dish.

For our own dinner tonight , were having griddled rib eye steak served with salsa Verde and sweet potato chips. One of my favourite meals , nothing quite like a lovely juicy savoury steak!! Probably not the normal combination here, but we wanted something a bit healthier than normal chips and well salsa Verde is my all time fave with anything really!!

Our Salsa Verde is made with 2 bags of parsley, 4 anchovies , juice of a lemon , 4 glugs of olive oil , tbls capers, 2 cloves of garlic, all whizzed in our little bowl blender.

The sweet potato's are just cut up with skin on , olive oil is heated in a dish in the oven as this helps the crisping process , as does sea salt on the potato's. I then add some spices. They take well to savoury and sweet seasonings like Cinnamon, garlic salt , all season and then roasted in the oven until going crispy and chewy! I also like dipping them into an M&S sour cream dip!!!!

Sometimes its just really nice to be in pj's , have fun making some nice food together and just be in our own space , with a bit of this thrown in to add to the action/relaxed juxtaposition chill vibe!!!

Wellllllllllllllll the finished article is really yum if I say so myself. I'm not normally immodest , but its delish and I'm really chuffed with our efforts tonight!!!! He the mans says its too sweet , so Ive just finished his bowl!!! Looks like our starters decided, (as long ads we can repeat it), now we have to sort the main dish and dessert. Have to keep that secret as a little bird might be watching and may spoil it for our guests!

For anyone reading my Reiki life blog , they will be familiar with the hearts that come to me everywhere . Check out the heart that turned up in the middle of that bowl!!!!! Can you believe it , how wonderful to even be in my food.

Its been a busy day and evening , signing out now to enjoy a after dinner Mojito , just served to me by he the mans!!! He the mans has just made himself his new found Caipirinha cocktail!

Enjoy x

cabbage borscht with no tomato juice ?????

OK need to back track on the borscht. The mama love has just told me a bit more about my late great nanas recipe and its a Polish cabbage borscht shes after with NO tomato juice , some may know it as sweet and sour cabbage soup?

So there you go , my muddled mama brain got it all the wrong way round , may be why I couldnt find it hey!

Ill do some digging again and see what I get !!!!

A mini sychronistic moment with Borscht!!

Some of you may have read my bit about wanting to find my mum her late Nana's Borscht recipe that had no raisins in it. Lo and behold through clicking this evening into Barbara's blog , (a lovely blog for home ideas and lifestyle), for a catch up on posts, at Candy Hearts and paper flowers and a her last post today, I found a link to The kitchen , which has wonderful food ideas and inspiration and there right on the list of soups is a recipe by Nina C for borscht with NO RAISINS. I will have to pass it by my mum and see what she thinks.

Thank you Barbara and Nina !

Ok so Im not so Kosher

but I love traditional Jewish food and my favourite places are the likes of Katz diner in New York. If your ever there , you really MUST go its an institution. Try and ignore the dirt, its all part of the New york deli experience. There really is nothing like a tennis ball kneidlach,(matzo meal dumpling), pickles and 3inches of chop liver on rye. Its one of my all time nosh and comfort foods for me and he the mans!

The best of its kind here however is Delisserie in Temple fortune, portions are enormous, so its a tip to share some of the plates with a few extras. It has a deco vibe and a bright comfortable decor and its always very very noisy, oh their pear juice is amazing stuff. Much better than the original restaurant in the same location, Madisons Deli. That always lacked something , there wasn't nearly enough depth to its offerings.

Back to Jewish food, another main staple in this house is the ubiquitous chicken soup, its basically the recipe for a chicken stock, but its a very traditional Jewish dish and we eat it with the chicken shredded, all the veg and egg noodles (lockshen) . This is a good run down of the recipe from ibiblio an online database of all sorts of info, (which I often push onto to my non Jewish friends if they're stuck for dinner ideas!). When I make it , its an event in this kitchen and a mess extravaganza! I tend to make about 10litres of the stuff , as Its such a faff for me! We then eat a good portion of one pot and portion out and freeze the rest for instant nourishment.

My girls love it and the biggest often eats two bowls for her dinner. Its the sort of soup that makes you do a deep relieved sigh inside. It has been famed numerous times for being called Jewish Penicillin and here's some papers I found online discussing the scientific basis for this. Ignore all the science jargon , just go with the content! (well unless your a doctor that is!).

The other thing I love, which we haven't made for years, is Cholent, It came from the days were bakeries would take your pot of ingredients very early on a Friday in readiness for sabbath, give you a ticket and you would collect it later. It was also often used for the celebration of weddings & Barmitzvah's.

Its a slow cook recipe of meat, butter beans ,barley, (although we both hate soggy barley I must say), stock , and various seasonings. There's probably a myriad recipes out there, I must get my mums recipe and post it here, although Im not sure ill be making it now till October , as it really is a dish for the winter. I also have no pictures to show you and to be honest it looks like a really revolting thing in photography, but believe me, if you love meat and beans , your onto a winner! We all love it in our family ,my sisters boyfriend however detest it, I think its the amount of beans! I will warn you , have a toilet near the next day!

The other famed dish and one my mums after is an amazing borscht my late great Polish grandmother made. Its a sweet and sour beetroot and cabbage soup, hers didn't include raisins and we've been trying to locate it for years!

If anyone knows what it is , let me know!