Dinner, Bed and Breakfast

Jane’s Mulligatawny Soup

2009-03-17T14:38:00.000-07:00

A wee extra something since Mother's Day is mere days away. This is my Mum's recipe for Mulligatawny Soup and it ROCKS. Take advantage of the last couple of weeks of rubbish weather before spring, and make a big pot. Serve with thick slices of brown bread and butter. Thanks Mum - you're ace!

Oh, and all quantities are in pounds and ounces. Imperial's where it's at.

1lb onion chopped
1 ounce marg
¾ lb courgettes / celery
¼ lb potatoes
1tsp Worcester sauce
1dsp curry powder
salt and pepper
½ pt stock (beef/veg)
1 small tin of tomatoes
1 ½ ounce rice and 4 fl oz water

Method: Fry onions and marge (10 mins). Add other veg and simmer (20 minutes). Add toms, stock, and seasoning. Liquidise. Cook rice and add. Add water to taste.

Jo’s Vegan Thai Banquet

2009-03-17T14:31:00.000-07:00

Due to the whole world (mainly my MacBook charger) conspiring against me, things have been wee bit quiet on the blog of late. To make up for it I’ve hit back with a cavalcade of vegan delights. I made this last Saturday for nine of my favourite people: Heather, Chelsea, Nathan, Jane, Erik, Kat, Malcolm, Oliver, and Kieran. Malcolm and Jane don’t eat anything with a face, so I went against my beliefs – The Holy Church of Steak, Butter, and Cream. Needless to say I’m quite smug about the whole thing.

After a mental night at the Wake the President album launch I was a little worse for wear in the Asian food store the next day. Luckily I turned it around with wine, wicked banter, and only one minor fire. Oops!

Spring Rolls From Scratch

For the filling stirfry the following ingredients in groundnut oil for 5 minutes:
[I made a ridiculous amount of filling, enough for about 35 spring rolls, so I wont even bother with quantities]

beansprouts
grated carrot
ginger
garlic
dried shitake mushrooms (soaked in water for 20 minutes first)
vermicelli
soy sauce

Then soak the spring roll wraps (available in all good Asian food stores) in water before lying each flat on a chopping board. Squeeze out any excess liquid from the filling mixture, and put a small handful in the corner of the wrap. Then wrap each portion of filling up like a beautiful present, and fry in smoking hot oil for two minutes. Drain the spring rolls on kitchen paper before serving with sweet chilli dipping sauce.

Thai Yellow Curry

I first made this at New Year with king prawns, but I think it worked just as well with veggies. If you use meat or seafood for this curry you should also add in a glug of fish sauce. Luckily I remembered not to use it in the vegan version! Easily serves 10.

For the paste:
6 red chilies
1 thumb-size piece of ginger, sliced
8 cloves of garlic
3 tsp. ground cumin
3 tsp. cinnamon
3 tsp. dried turmeric
3 Tbsp. brown sugar
12 dried kaffir lime leaves
3 cans of coconut milk
juice from 2 limes
3 Tbsp. tomato paste

Instead of MEAT:

2 large cooking onions
2 courgettes chopped into pieces
3 stalks lemon grass
6 potatoes, chopped into small chunks
2 green and 1 red peppers
2 packs of mange tout and babycorn (gotta love the babycorn)
3 cups cherry tomatoes
1/2 loose cup fresh coriander to serve

Slice, dice, and combine the ingredients for the paste in a bowl first, before starting the veggies cooking, then mix them all up in a big pot, simmer, and cover for an hour. Remember to fish out the lemongrass before serving – it’s just in there for the flavour.

Oliver’s Secret to Perfect Rice

Sick of sloppy starchy rice? Make like Dr Oliver Cram, and whisk the rice in water to remove all of the starch. Drain and repeat until the water runs clear. Then cover the rice in about an inch of water, and bring to the boil. Take it off the heat and cover until you have perfect fluffy rice.

Banana Bonanza

bananas (1/2 per person)
spring roll wraps – left over from the spring rolls you made earlier
runny honey
flaked almonds
ground nut oil

Soak the spring roll wraps in water as before, use them to wrap up the banana halves. Fry in a pan of hot oil for two minutes, and drain on a piece of kitchen paper. Then top with honey and a handful of flaked almonds. Yum!

To top off the night, Kieran made a (non-vegan) chocolate chip cake, and I made vodka and cokes. More of that next time when I get the bowtied babe to share one of his delectable cake recipes. Russian Chocolate Cake with Beetroot anyone?

Tom’s PB ‘n’ Soy Chicken (or Cook 2.0)

2009-02-22T02:10:00.000-08:00

Even though I haven’t seen Tom Viehe for almost two years he got in touch through the magic of Twitter (yes, I know I’m a massive geek but Tom is even more geektastic then me) to ‘tweet’ me a recipe. It’s reassuring to know that despite being a hugely successful grownup with a fancy schmancy job in Washington DC his idea of haut cuisine still involves peanut butter.

I’ve had faith in Tom’s culinary abilities ever since he taught me to make risotto during my final year at St Andrews in September ’05. I was just starting to return from the food wilderness, and realising that student cooking didn’t have to mean 9p Asda Smart Price instant noodles. However, I was a vegetarian at that point so I clearly had a long way to go. It was a mushroom risotto, in case you’re interested, and it was good.

Enough of Tom's back catalogue, let's focus on some new material. His tweet said:

tomviehe @gambollingsylph glasgow=far. me=poor. recipe: 1GBellPepper+1onion+2chickenBrsts;cut'emIntoStrips.fry in oil. add 2tbspPB+1tspSoySauce.

And here’s the dinner party version for six:

3 green bell peppers
2 large onions
6 chicken breasts
sunflower oil
6 tablespoons of peanut butter
3 teaspoons of soy sauce
Serve with oodles of noodles.

Due to the brevity of the Twitter format (140 characters or less obvs) I’m not entirely sure of the cooking times here, but it’s a glorified stir fry really. In fact I don’t think Tom would mind if you added some stirfry staples like babycorn and mangetout to the mix – go crazy.

Next time I’ll hopefully have wrangled Dr Oliver Cram’s recipe for perfect rice, and maybe even a curry to go with it. If you cook Dinner, Bed and Breakfast for your friends/loved ones send your recipes to joanna_kerr@hotmail.com

Bettina’s Swiss Savoy cabbage mince pie

2009-02-13T15:46:00.000-08:00

It may sound like something The Twits would eat; but when Bettina made this cabbagey concoction on the 30 December last year it became one of the best meals of ’08. Dieter, Lucy, Nathan and I gathered round the Grant Street kitchen table in trepidation, but it turns out meaty mince cloaked in cabbage is a true delight. It’s also seasonal, and packed with lovely vitamins and iron. Bonus.

Still not convinced? I can only assure you that Bettina is an honest soul who would never poison you on purpose. You only have to look at her pure Swiss complexion, and unnecessarily large collection of printed scarves to know that this lady means no wrong. Plus she runs the rather wonderful Original Fires band nights (coming soon to an indie venue near you), which I promised I would plug, here: http://www.myspace.com/originalfiresuk, but which really have no relevance to dinner parties at all.

And so to the cooking… Bettina tells me the original recipe serves two, but it’s much more exciting to serve the version for six below.

Journey to Switzerland (or your local Spar) for:

1 Savoy cabbage
2 slices of dry bread
1 big onion
1 1/2 tablespoons of butter
600g mince meat
3 eggs
3 tablespoons of parsley (ideally fresh and chopped, but dried is fine, too)
1 1/2 teaspoons of dried majoram
a pinch of ground caraway
1 1/2 teaspoons of spicy mustard
salt
pepper

1. Blanch the Savoy cabbage leaves for 6 minutes
2. Soak the bread in water
3. Chop the onion small and sauté it in the butter until glazed. Mix the squeezed out bread with the mince, eggs, onion, parsley, majoram, caraway and mustard. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Grease a muffin tray (either make small individual muffins or put the whole mix into a bigger tray - baking time will have to be increased accordingly) and coat with cabbage leaves. Fill in the mince and cover with cabbage leaves. Put in the oven for about 20 minutes at 180°C.
5. Serve with potatoes and root vegetables. Hurrah for hearty grub!

Jo’s chicken with sweet potato

2009-02-08T09:48:00.001-08:00

And so, we kick things off with a nifty dinner party recipe from yours truly. I was inspired by Gavin’s flatmate Ruaidhri’s assertion that sweet potatoes, rosemary, chilli and garlic are a winning combo. I think he’s a veggie though so the chicken is all me.

Who came: Heather, Heather’s fiancé Aaron (marrying at 23, oh so ghetto), Nathan, Bettina, Fi, and Andrew M. A stellar cast, and the red wine overfloweth.

Serves 8
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hr 30 minutes
[My Mum told me that the secret to perfectly cooked chicken was, “20 minutes per pound, and 20 minutes more.” I don’t have the heart to tell he we’re all about the metric now. All I can say is that my two chickens were perfect after an hour and a half. Always check though, I’ve heard salmonella’s pretty nasty.]

Mosey down to Sainsbo’s and fill the trolley with:
2 chickens (1kg each)
12 small/medium sweet potatoes
8 rashers of smoked back bacon
garlic
one red chilli
dried rosemary
olive oil
black pepper

I served it with broccoli, but if I had my way everything would be. Even trifle.

1. Peel the sweet potatoes and roughly cut them into wedges
2. Put the potatoes on the bottom of a deep baking tray and spread them about evenly. Mix a large teaspoon each of garlic, chilli and rosemary with a big glug of olive oil and drizzle over the potatoes.
3. Sit your chickens on top of the potatoes and make sure they don’t have any weirdy giblet type stuff in them. Cover the chickens in bacon, four rashers on each. Grind black pepper on top.
4. Stick the baking tray into the oven at 200oC and wait for the bacon to crisp up a bit (about 20 minutes). Then cover the tray in foil and cook for the rest of the time. For the last ten minutes you can take the bacon off the top and put the chickens back in uncovered to let the skin brown.
5. When it’s done carve the chicken, and serve with a big spoonful of the sweet potatoes and some juice from the pan. Give everyone a rasher of bacon too. Yum!

The result: only one broccoli floret left over. Outstanding!

Dinner is served

2009-02-08T03:55:00.000-08:00

The perfect dinner party: fine wine, four courses, petit fours, and not forgetting the gaggle of rich and successful friends to share your feast. It’s all Marks and Sparks food-porn lady, “this is not just a dinner party, this is an M&S dinner party” in your head. But the reality for most bright young things is less Nigella, and more stuffed crust Pizza Hut while watching Come Dine With Me. We don’t have the cash, or willpower to pull off the perfect dinner party. Hell, if you’re renting a flat you’re lucky to even have a dining table.

Cooking for friends is awesome though. You can’t go wrong with boozy dinners, or (in some cases still boozy) hangover brunches. Some of my most sparkly and smile-icious memories are from these events. My friends cook lush food, and if all goes according to plan (ha!) this blog will be a catalogue of their highs.

I’m Jo. I’m 23. I live in Glasgow. Despite eating huge quantities of food on a daily basis I’m not (yet) morbidly obese – yay!

The Rules
1. Recipes must either be for a dinner party or a hangover munch. Booze isn’t essential, but lets face it, it always helps.
2. All recipes must have been cooked by real people. Entertaining background information will be provided where appropriate.
3. They can’t be nicked out the latest WH Smith touted all colour cookbook, by a famous chef with a culinary ‘concept’ to flog. If you do ‘borrow’ some ideas make them your own.
4. Nicking stuff from your Mum is OK though.
5. Recipes must feed a minimum of four, but the bigger the party the better.
6. They shouldn’t break the bank… official recession now people, lets leave the caviar to the crumbly oligarchs.