Tuesday 24 January 2012

Happy New Year



For a variety of reasons, including apathy, my sisters and I decided to eschew big New Year’s Eve events for the 2011 – 2012 handover.  Instead, after a particularly heavy sisterly session in the local pub, we decided to have a dinner party for 12 people at our mother’s house, with each of us cooking a course of the meal. (Just to clarify – the mothership wasn’t there. She had no input on the food). Now, inviting people to break bread (there wasn’t any bread) on arguably the most important night of the year (but then again, arguably not) is risky. The food, drinks, conversation and atmosphere all have to be especially memorable.  In a good way.  As with so many things in life, planning was crucial.

And so it was that I found myself bowling round Tescos with wet hair in a summer dress at 11am on New Year’s Eve with sister number 4, who was wearing normal clothes but being spectacularly annoying nonetheless. Sample of conversation:

Me (terse): You’re in charge of making sure we have all the ingredients for the blinis, ok? I’m keeping track of everything else, I just need your help with one thing.
Sister 4, texting boys and lounging near the celery: Ok
Me (more terse): Are you listening?
Sister 4 (with attitude): Yes, obviously. I can do more than one thing at once.
Me: Right. Well don’t forg….
Sister 4 walks off
Me (strangulated voice): Where are you going? What are you doing?
Sister 4: The blinis are over here.
Me (hissing): No they’re not you idiot. God, PAY ATTENTION. You have ONE job. That’s the fish section.
Sister 4 (holding 3 packs of blinis aloft) Yes (puts one in trolley), and they’ve obviously set it up (puts one in trolley) so that people don’t miss any ingredients for their canapés (puts one in trolley, raises eyebrow, walks off) .
Me (fraught, running with trolley): Come back! Ha, see, you’ve just walked through the dairy aisle without getting the crème fraiche. I knew you weren’t listening.
Sister 4 (with a withering look): Are you chasing me?
Me: No
Sister 4: For God’s sake.

It wasn’t my finest hour.

We spent the afternoon prepping the food, decorating the table and checking the prosecco was bubbly, whilst waiting for Sisters 2 and 3 to descend from the wilds of outside the M25.  By 7pm we were, miraculously, good to go.

The menu was as follows, and I have asked each of my sisters to write a little recipe for the course they made. Happy New Year all!



Cocktails and canapés (sister 3)

Apologies all but not got time to do this blog thing at the moment

Risotto allo Champagne (mine)
Serves 6 as a small starter (it’s very rich), 4 as a bigger deal.

300g risotto rice
3 shallots
1 bottle of cava
250ml chicken stock
6 scallops on the half shell
-2 knobs of butter
-chives and edible gold leaf (optional jazzy garnish)

-Clean the scallops and shells. Set aside.
-Chop the shallots and sweat in a knob of butter until translucent
-Add the rice and coat in the butter until glossy
-Start adding the cava in the usual risotto-esque manner, i.e. stand by it and keep stirring.
-Once the whole bottle is gone, stir a bit more to burn off the alcohol, as you just want a subtle flavour:
-Fry the scallops in a separate pan until bouncy and opaque with a nice golden colour to the outside:
-Just before serving, add the stock, stir until incorporated and beat in the remaining knob of butter:
-Serve a spoonful of risotto in the shell with a scallop on top.
-Decorate with an insouciant scattering of chives and golf leaf:

Ballotine of Chicken with potatoes Dauphinoises (over to sister 2)
(Serves 4)

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts
1 packet pancetta (aprrox 8 large slices)
250g spinach
125g ricotta
1.5litres chicken stock
olive oil

For the dauphinois:

6 large waxy potatoes (Desiree are a good choice)
150ml single cream
150ml double cream
1 garlic clove (crushed)
250g mild cheddar (grated)

Potato Dauphinoise
You can make these with or without cheese (a debate which usually leads to some stony silences
between me and my traditionalist sister!) Because I’m right – Ed. I like to make them with cheese as I think it makes for a much more sumptuous and deliciously creamy finished product.

Preheat the oven to 180’C. Mix the single and double cream together in a large mixing bowl. Add the
crushed garlic clove, a good crunch of salt and pepper and stir together.

Peel and thinly slice the potatoes with a sharp knife or mandolin.

In a gratin dish, layer some of the potatoes in a circular pattern to cover the bottom of the dish. Pour
over some of the cream mixture until the potatoes are well covered. Sprinkle some of the cheese on.
Repeat the layering process (potatoes> cream> cheese) finishing with a top layer covered with lots
of cheese.

Cook for 1-1.5hrs or until the potatoes are soft and the cheese on the top is golden brown.

Ballotine of chicken
Place each chicken breast between two sheets of cling film and bash with a rolling pin until the
breast has flattened and is approximately 1cm thick. Set aside.

Trim the stems and wilt the spinach in a pan with a little water. Drain, transfer to a bowl and allow to
cool a little before stirring in the ricotta. Season with salt and pepper.

Lay two sheets of pancetta length ways next to each other so that they just overlap in the middle of
a sheet of cling film. Put the flattened chicken breast on top of the pancetta. Next add a line of the
spinach and ricotta mixture about a third of the way from the chicken edge. Grab the edge of the
cling-film and tightly roll the chicken into a sausage shape. Make sure the ends are securely tied.

Once all the chicken breasts have been rolled and tied, place the ballotines into a large saucepan of
boiling chicken stock for 30 minutes.

Remove from the stock and cut the ballotines out of the cling film. Be careful as they will be very
hot. Add a little olive oil to a frying pan on a relatively high heat and fry the ballotines until the
pancetta crisps up.

Cut in half, serve alongside the dauphinoise and your choice of veg… then look smug!

Galette des Rois (sister 4)

“I’M TOO BUSY”.

Told you she was annoying.

She was a good time, had by all