Winter Lunch

Yay! Finally, another lunch. Mariette and I were chatting and we have worked out that our social lives have picked up exponentially, pretty much as soon as we have decided we needed to get a life. Go figure, either way we are having fun when we can. Apparently Mariette is tiling her house so this could be it for a while. So I figure that we need to do a snack evening at my house. That means Mariette will be subjected to cooking in a normal person’s kitchen, which includes limited appliances and only 1 normal sized oven.

Guests for tomorrow’s lunch will be an all girls affair. I think the girls’ lunches are quite a fabulous plan. Corne, my other director, will be there - hopefully without that big spoon she so likes to stir with. Another guest will be her friend, Des, who works in advertising, which means she is totally hysterically funny. Then we have Erica who, rumour has it, is an event planner, but I myself have never met her, Corne and Mariette know her quite well apparently, and Berna is making a second appearance at our lunch. Yay, we are all thrilled, we think she is most cool.

It should be mentioned that Mariette’s niece, Rochelle, will also be joining us. Alas, sadly her role is likened unto mine; she has to work for her lunch. She has been helping Mariette in the kitchen for years and is rather brilliant in her own right, so this means I will now have 2 task masters……. sigh.

I am not quite sure what I did to Mariette, but I am being punished with the most awful menu. I just simply cannot find a saving grace in any of the courses. Though, I should mention in all fairness that I never ate soup at all before embarking on this exercise. And look at me now! I have since discovered that I love French onion soup and can actually even stomach broccoli soup.

So, now I am being punished for having a open mind, cause the best thing on the scary lunch menu is the soup. Not just any soup, though …... wait for it: tomato and egg plant soup. Doesn’t that just make you want to taste it? I think not. Anyone else ever wonder why one odd vegetable like brinjal has three different names? Anyway, I am clinging to the hope that there is bread with the soup, because it does so not sound appetizing at all. I am, however, trying to keep an open mind.

Now my other conundrum is what kind of wine can you have with that? I have been scouring my books and haven’t found much on tomato. The best I could do was a tomato bredie and with that a merlot was recommended. I will try and be inventive.
Another punishment for making Mariette eat so much meat is that we will have fish for main course. On the upside it will be fish pie, so at least I have pastry to distract me from my woes.

Finally for dessert – oh, shoot me - it’s a pear, poached if I remember correctly. All things considered, the menu sucks, and that is just my humble opinion. There is nothing on it I would voluntarily eat, but a deal is a deal and I will definitely try. I might, however, have to make Di bring me a Mc Donalds burger, just in case. I mean we are still going to have lots of wine and I can’t drink on an empty stomach.

Winter Lunch

(6-8 people)


Menu

Starter

Roasted Aubergine, Tomato and Basil Soup
Wine: Seidelberg Roland Reserve 2003
Lindhorst Pinotage 2004


Main
Fish Pie
Green Salad
Wine: Stonybrook Semillion 2003
Chamonix Troika 2003


Dessert
Poached Pears with Sabayon
Wine: Beyerskloof


Tea / Coffee

Shopping list:

Fruit and Vegetables:
4 Brinjals
8 Plum Tomatoes
Garlic
Chilli
Basil
4 Onions
300g Button mushrooms
4 leeks
Dill
Parsley
8 Pears
2 Lemons
Mixed salad leaves
300g Green asparagus spears
Spring onion

Meat and Fish:
1kg White fish
500g Prawns (peeled and deveined)

Dairy and eggs:
12 Eggs
250ml Double cream
Gorgonzola cheese

Other Groceries:
1.5 – 2l Vegetable stock
100ml Sundried tomatoes
Dijon mustard
4 Rolls puff pastry
Dry white wine
Sweet white wine
Marsala wine

From the cupboard:

Salt
Black Pepper
Flour
Castor sugar
Olive oil
Honey
Coffee
Tea

From the fridge:

Unsalted butter
Milk

Time Planner

What can be done on Friday night:

Set the table
Poach the pears
Grill the vegetables for the soup
Make the soup

Plan of Action:

Saturday morning:

Poach the fish
Boil eggs
Make the white sauce
Combine ingredients for the fish pie
Make vinaigrette for green salad

1 hour before serving the following can be done:

Cover fish pie with pastry
Cut the gorgonzola into squares
Hollow out crusty bread rolls
Toast bread rolls in oven
Steam and refresh asparagus for green salad
Cut cucumber and spring onion for green salad

CRUNCH Time - ½ an hour before serving:

Prepare the mustard mix for the soup
Dress salad leaves
Reheat the soup
Pop the fish pies in the oven
Ask the kitchen assistant to pour the wine (Thats me!!)
Serve the soup

Serving the main course:

Clear the table
Take fish pies out of oven
Ask the kitchen assistant to pour the wine
Dish up green salad
If you made one big fish pie dish up at the table or let the guests dish up for themselves
If you made individual fish pies, you can just serve each pie on a pretty plate as it can get quite messy when eating

Serving the dessert:

Clear the table
Make the sabayon
Dish up the pears and sabayon
Ask the kitchen assistant to pour the wine (Me again)
Serve the dessert

Roasted Aubergine, Tomato and Basil Soup from Food and Home – July 2006

What would you need to prepare the Aubergine, tomato and basil soup:

Roasting tin
Chopping board
Small sharp knife
4l Saucepan
Measuring cups
Measuring spoons
Food processor

Ingredients for the soup:

4 Aubergines, cut into chunks
8 Rosa tomatoes, chopped
300ml Olive oil
100ml Sun dried tomatoes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1.5 – 2l Vegetable stock
4 Garlic cloves crushed
2 chillies, seeded and chopped
30ml Dijon mustard
8 Crusty bread rolls
Gorgonzola cubes
Fresh Basil to garnish

Method:

1. Pre heat the oven to 200C
2. Place the aubergines and tomatoes in a roasting tin and drizzle with 180ml of the olive oil
3. Roast until the aubergines are cooked. This will take between 30 and 45 minutes.
4. Place the aubergines, tomatoes, their juices, 40ml of the olive oil, sun dried tomatoes and seasoning in a food processor
5. Process until slightly chunky
6. Bring the stock to the boil and add the aubergine mixture
7. You can make the soup up to this point and then leave it to serve later
8. When you want to serve the soup, simmer it over low heat for 5 minutes
9. Blend the garlic, chillies and mustard in a food processor and while the motor is running add the remaining olive oil in a slow stream until the mixture is thick and creamy
10. When serving the soup, add a couple of gorgonzola cubes, a dollop of the mustard mixture and garnish with basil

Considerations:

I usually use 1.5l of stock and check the consistency of the soup first, before adding more stock – aubergines vary greatly in size. If you want the soup to have a little more oomph, then add one or two more chillies. I usually hollow out some crusty bread rolls, toast them in the oven and then spoon the soup in the bread roll before serving.

Fish Pie

What would you need to prepare the fish pie:

Big glass pie dish / small individual pie dishes
Chopping board
Small sharp knife
2 X 3l Saucepan
1 x 2l Saucepan
Measuring cups
Measuring spoons
Pastry cutter
Small bowl for egg wash
Pastry brush

Ingredients for the fish pie:

1kg White fish (haddock, hake, cape whiting)
500g Cleaned deveined prawns
1 Onion finely chopped
300g Baby button mushrooms
6 Hard boiled eggs, cut into bite sized pieces
4 Leeks, washed and chopped
4 Rolls ready made puff pastry
170g Unsalted butter
170g Plain flour
1 Bunch dill, finely chopped
30g Parsley, finely chopped
1l Full cream milk
250ml Double cream
300ml Dry white wine
2 Onions, cubed

Method:

Poach the fish
1. Bring the milk and the cubed onion to the boil
2. Add the white fish to the milk and poach for 5 – 8 minutes until the fish becomes flaky
3. Pour the milk through a sieve and keep for using in the white sauce

Prepare mushrooms, onions and leeks
4. Melt 30g of butter over medium heat
5. Add the finely chopped onions and cook until soft but not brown
6. Add the leeks and mushrooms to the onions and cook for about 10 minutes
7. Add the wine and simmer for another 10 – 15 minutes

Make the white sauce (I helped)
8. Melt the rest of the butter over medium heat
9. Add the flour and stir to combine
10. Ladle the poaching milk into the butter and flour and whisk until smooth
11. Using a strainer, pour the wine from the onions and mushroom mix into the sauce
12. Add the cream and mix thoroughly
13. Season to taste

Assemble the fish pie
14. Preheat the oven to 200C
15. Combine the fish, prawns, eggs, mushroom mixture, parsley and dill
16. Add enough sauce to coat all the ingredients
17. Mix together
18. Spoon the mixture into one big pie dish or small individual dishes
19. Roll out the pastry
20. Trim strips of the pastry and attach to the edge of the dish
21. Trim the remaining pastry to fit over the top of the dish and attach to the pastry strip
22. Paint the pastry with egg wash
23. Place in the pre heated oven for 30 minutes or until the pastry is puffed up and golden brown

Considerations:

You can make the fish pie ahead of time and pop it in the fridge. Add the pastry lid just before popping it into the oven.

Green Salad

What would you need to prepare the green salad:

Steamer
Big glass bowl
Chopping board
Squeeze bottle
Measuring spoons


Ingredients:

450g Mixed salad leaves
300g Green asparagus spears
1 Cucumber
1 bunch of small spring onions
15ml Lemon juice
60ml Olive oil
Salt and pepper
5ml Honey

Method:

1. Rinse asparagus and steam for 4 – 5 minutes
2. Refresh asparagus in ice water
3. Drain the asparagus and keep to one side
4. Cut the cucumber thinly into rings
5. Cut the spring onions length ways in half and then in half again
6. For the vinaigrette, combine lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper and honey in squeeze bottle and shake
7. Dress the salad leaves lightly with vinaigrette just before serving
8. Add asparagus, cucumber and spring onion and toss
9. Add a little more vinaigrette if needed


Considerations:

You can add any green vegetable to the green salad as long as it is crisp and fresh. A green salad provides the perfect counter point to a rich dish like the fish pie. I usually serve individual portions. If you want to do this, place some dressed leaves on a side plate and arrange the green vegetables on top. Drizzle with a little vinaigrette

Pears Poached in Red Wine

What would you need to prepare the poached pears:

3l sauce pan
Measuring cup
Zesting knife
Small sharp knife
Baking paper

Ingredients:

8 – 10 Pears
750ml Red wine
250g Castor sugar
Zest from two lemons

Method:

1. Peel the pears
2. Combine red wine, sugar and lemon zest and 500ml water in a saucepan
3. Bring to the boil stirring occasionally to ensure the sugar is dissolved
4. Add the pears and cover with baking paper
5. Simmer for 20 – 25 minutes until the pears are soft but still firm
6. Remove the saucepan from the heat and cool the pears in the poaching liquid
7. Once cool remove the pears with a slotted spoon and serve

Considerations:

I usually make the pears the night before and once done, transfer them to a glass bowl. Only remove them from the poaching liquid just before serving. The pears were served with sabayon, but can also be served with a butterscotch sauce or even chocolate ice cream.

Sabayon

What would you need to prepare the sabayon:

Double boiler
Electric whisk
Measuring cup


Ingredients:

4 egg yolks
60ml castor sugar
150ml Sweet white wine
30ml Marsala wine

Method:

1. Put the egg yolks, sugar and wine in the top part of a double boiler over boiling water not in it
2. Whisk for 15-20 minutes until thick and creamy
3. Dish a big spoonful of the sabayon in a serving plate and place a pear on top

Considerations:

Don’t even think of making the sabayon up front, make it just before serving. It must be rich and foamy. I have made it with grape juice instead of sweet white wine, but it did not have the same oomph, so I won’t recommend it.

Post Mortem

Well, what can I say, when the guests ask for more wine after the 5 bottles they had with lunch and 2 wine glasses get broken, you just know it was a good party!

Definitely a fun crowd, lots of wine flowing, interesting conversation, most certainly more than a 17 year old should hear, but hell, at least she is well educated now.

Let me get my preparation winge over and done with, sigh …..… I didn’t get to do all that much for the lunch because Mariette had belly dancing and prepared stuff in advance again. Tut tut

Starters

I hate to admit it, but Mariette has made a soup eater out of me. This was the highlight of the meal for me - who would ever have thought that this could happen to me? I didn’t even need the McDonalds burger, mainly because I ate the contents of the hollowed out rolls. Hmmm, I am just such a baker’s child - I simply love bread. Let me just say hollowing out the rolls isn’t a job that just anyone can do. I mean if it wasn’t for me large portions of rolls would have gone missing as it is a bit fiddly. I must say, I thought the idea of putting the soup into little bread rolls was fabulous. This changed the whole consistency of the soup. It was like eating really thick soup with melted cheese and nothing like a soggy roll at all. So in my opinion the soup was superb.

Wine: Seidelberg Roland Reserve 2003
Lindhorst Pinotage 2004

Yay me – this makes a change. Both wines worked really well with the soup. There was a hung jury for a while, until, surprise - surprise the Pinotage won out. So I guess the books are right after all, tomato based dishes are best suited to a young fruity red, such as Pinotage.

Main:

I learnt how to make white sauce. That previous glue like substance all makes so much sense now - the things you learn. I also stretched my pastry perfectly so there was no flopping in incident this time around. I have to say that I rather chuffed with myself.
Now let’s be honest, this was fish so how great can it be? But most fortunately it was also pie, which means there was pastry. So there was at least one thing that counted in favour of the fish. Personally it was better that I expected, not being a fish fan and all. The pastry was fabulous and the filling wasn’t half bad. I ate almost all of it, and partially enjoyed it. AlthoughI have to add it is not something I would rush out and have in a hurry, but as far as fish goes, definitely the best fish I have ever had. All the guests except for Di, who doesn’t like pie, (I find that quite odd), reckoned the fish was fabulous and demanded the recipe. So, hell, I guess I don’t know everything. Please try it out and let me know, everyone else seemed to like it a lot.

Wine: Stony Brook Semillion 2003
Chamonix Troika 2003

Aah, now I am back to my usual experimental ways. The Bordeaux blend was perfect for the meal and was loved by one and all. Now most people would have tried a wooded chardonnay with creamy fish, but not me. It turns out that I probably should have. It was not that the Semillion was bad, it was delightfully fruity and fragrant, and so not what I had in mind. Oops, oh well, so with this rich creamy fish pie, the troika won hands down

Dessert:

Oy , this was so not my food day. The starter was shocking in a very good way, as it turned out to be absolutely divine. Even the main course was surprisingly nice.

Dessert, well unfortunately it still tasted like pears and there was nothing you could do about that. Mariette may have painstakingly poached it, but the bottom line is, a pear by any other name is still a pear and if you don’t like pears you were pretty much stuffed. Di and Berna polished it off and really liked it. Corne and I didn’t like it at all, and we were later called philistines by Mariette’s husband. He was totally shocked that there were any left overs. Corne didn’t like the egg yolk taste on the foamy stuff (sabayon - I am told) and me, well not a pear person, shaped more like an apple actually.

Wine:
Beyerskloof
Well, finally!!! It is about high time I got dessert right. Port was clearly the way to go. The decision was unanimous - yummy port that complimented the food.

All in all, I do not have the most refined taste buds, but I have to say the food was a hit and for once so was the wine. Glasses were broken, more wine was opened and a good day was had by all.