Its always nice to prepare a special meal for arrivals & departures.
In J
anuary Peter's family visited from the UK for the first time. For their arrival we did an old favourite, lamb salad with spinach, kumara & capsicum. It's good to offer a salad when people have recently been sitting in a plane for 24+ hours. In addition, New Zealand lamb is a good start & kumara is a specialty. If you want to make it outside New Zealand then a sweet potato will suffice. I am not sure about varieties. I first made it in February last year. The recipe suggest you slow roast the kumara, onion & capsicum in a
pan then set aside while you cook the lamb. I find that for a crowd my pan isn't big enough & the kumara doesn't cook evenly. I suggest you roast the vegetables with olive oil in the oven at about 180 for around 30-40 mins. I always like to heat the pan first as it gives the vegetables a bit of a start. Cook the lamb separately & assemble as described.
anuary Peter's family visited from the UK for the first time. For their arrival we did an old favourite, lamb salad with spinach, kumara & capsicum. It's good to offer a salad when people have recently been sitting in a plane for 24+ hours. In addition, New Zealand lamb is a good start & kumara is a specialty. If you want to make it outside New Zealand then a sweet potato will suffice. I am not sure about varieties. I first made it in February last year. The recipe suggest you slow roast the kumara, onion & capsicum in a
pan then set aside while you cook the lamb. I find that for a crowd my pan isn't big enough & the kumara doesn't cook evenly. I suggest you roast the vegetables with olive oil in the oven at about 180 for around 30-40 mins. I always like to heat the pan first as it gives the vegetables a bit of a start. Cook the lamb separately & assemble as described.
For a light pudding, we had grilled summer stone fruits. For 6 use about 1kg of fruit - a mix of plums, apricots, peaches, nectarines, cherries. I added raspberries because I had some in the fridge. Halve the fruit, remove stones & place cut side up in a roasting dish - leave cherries whole. Sift over about 1/2 cup icing sugar & put under a hot grill for about 8-10 minutes. Drizzle over a little liqueur or sprinkle with a little more icing sugar. Serve with home-made vanilla ice cream or the best ice cream you can buy.
To farewell our visitors we made a cobb salad. This is perfect when the salad vegetables, including avocados, are at their best. If you haven't tried it, you can't imagine how delicious this is. It seems fiddly but it isn't. You can just mush it all together in a salad bowl but the careful composition makes it so stunning on the plate and I thin
k it helps to meld the flavours just right. For pudding I made a plum clafoutis.
The following night we farewelled Phoebe who has now left us for those warmer northern climes. We prepared her favourite meal which also happens to be her birthday dinner - Chicken Za'atar & Fattoush. For pudding she requested our family chocolate mousse. Tensions were running a little high as cooking & packin
g occurred simultaneously & we nearly forgot to serve it and did forget to photograph it. That's probably a good thing as I am not going to give you the recipe. Only Phoebe, Isabel & I know how to make it & they're not telling either.
k it helps to meld the flavours just right. For pudding I made a plum clafoutis.The following night we farewelled Phoebe who has now left us for those warmer northern climes. We prepared her favourite meal which also happens to be her birthday dinner - Chicken Za'atar & Fattoush. For pudding she requested our family chocolate mousse. Tensions were running a little high as cooking & packin
g occurred simultaneously & we nearly forgot to serve it and did forget to photograph it. That's probably a good thing as I am not going to give you the recipe. Only Phoebe, Isabel & I know how to make it & they're not telling either.Now "around" the table is reduced to the two of us sitting at one end of a very large table. I suspect our eating habits will change somewhat - all recipes will be for 2 unless specified. Rest assured however, we will not be depriving ourselves of delicious meals. Watch this space.
No comments:
Post a Comment