Dinner with Friends

I had some friends to dinner on Saturday night and wanted to try some recipes I have never made before. I started with two canapes, Gorgonzola Quichettes with Red Onion and Thyme Confit and Mini-Poppodums with Creamy Chicken Tikka. I found both these recipes on a fabulous finger food blog site,"The Passionate Cook", it is well worth a look if you are after some different finger food ideas. These two recipes can be found at http://thepassionatecook.typepad.com/thepassionatecook/2007/01/gorgonzola_quic.html and http://thepassionatecook.typepad.com/thepassionatecook/2009/06/mini-poppodums.html

The Gorgonzola Quichettes were quite strong as Gorgonzola is a blue cheese which can be an acquired taste. I would be interested in trying this recipe again with camembert cheese which may suit the tastes of more people. The chicken tikka was a very simple dish made by marinating chicken breast strips then grilling them and chopping finely before mixing with cream. The chicken tikka is served on mini-poppodums which you buy ready to eat, sprinkled with paprika and topped with a coriander leaf. They are served cold and were very tasty. Both these recipes were able to be mostly prepared in advance making them easy to assemble at the last minute.

For entree I made Pork Dumplings in a Lime-Leaf Broth which were very simple and seemed to be enjoyed by all. This was a Donna Hay recipe from her Marie Claire cookbook, Flavours. The dumpling filling was simply minced pork, hoisin sauce (a Chinese barbeque sauce) and coriander leaves. The great thing about these is that they could be made ahead of time and kept covered with a damp cloth in the fridge. Before serving you cook them in a broth of chicken stock, sliced ginger, lightly crushed kaffir lime leaves and soy sauce. They only take a few minutes to cook. You serve them with some of the broth and some finely shredded kaffir lime leaves. I would rate these an 8 out of 10.

For main course I continued with the Asian theme as I wanted to bake a whole Coral Trout I had in the freezer. I used a friend's recipe which stuffed the fish with a mixture of cooked wild and brown rice. Wild rice is actually not a rice at all but the grain from a type of aquatic grass which is native to North America. The fish is smeared with Thai red curry paste and coconut cream, sprinkled with shredded ginger and finely shredded kaffir lime leaves and then wrapped in a banana leaf lined with baking paper, if you have one, or otherwise alfoil lined with baking paper. The recipe said to cook for 40 minutes at 180 degrees but as my oven loses a lot of heat whenever you open it I had to increase the temperature and cook for double that time. To serve you sprinkle with sliced red chillies and coriander sprigs and top with a dressing of fresh lime slices, fish sauce, lime juice and sweet chilli sauce.

I also made a dish of Mussels with Basil and Lemon Grass from the Women's Weekly Thai cookbook. I have never really enjoyed mussels but have been converted! I bought "pot ready" mussels which did still need a bit of cleaning up and some beards (a little hairy piece that the mussel uses to attach itself to rocks and pylons) had not been removed but this didn't require too much work. The beard should be removed just before cooking. To make this dish you first fry some onions, garlic, chopped lemon grass and chilli. You then add white wine, lime juice and fish sauce and bring to the boil. Add the mussels and cook covered for 5 minutes or until the mussels have opened. If any mussels don't open they should be thrown away. Finally add some shredded Thai basil and coconut milk and heat through. Serve topped with sliced red chillies, green onions and Thai basil leaves. YUM! I think when I have had mussels before they were either the cold marinated type or served in a tomato based sauce and I really don't enjoy seafood and tomato but I found these delicious. Personally I would rate this dish a 9 out of 10 and the 6 of us ate the majority of 2 kgs of mussels so I think they were enjoyed by all.

I served the mussels and fish with some jasmine rice steamed with a couple of kaffir lime leaves and a simple green salad with a chilli jam dressing which one of my friends kindly made.

For dessert I decided to continue with the Asian theme, as I wanted something quite light, so decided to try a dish Marion made on Masterchef, Mango and Lychee Stack with Fish Sauce Syrup, Coconut Granita and Chilli Sugar. This is a terrible photo but the dish did actually look very pretty on the plate with lots of lovely colours and shapes. The star fruit, also known as Carambola, is a tropical fruit with a waxy skin, which you can eat and when you cut it into slices it forms a very pretty five pointed star shape. Coconut granita is just a frozen mixture of coconut milk and sugar which you break up with a fork regularly as it is freezing so it becomes an icy sorbet.

You can find this recipe at http://www.masterchef.com.au/mango-and-lychee-with-fish-sauce-syrup-coconut-granita-and-chilli-sugar.htm This was a very busy dish with a lot of flavours and textures. The mango and lychee stack worked really well with the coconut granita but I am not sure I really liked the fish sauce caramel and the chilli sugar was far too salty. I had a lot of trouble with the panko breadcrumb praline and in the end I think it was still overcooked but I am wondering if the "burnt caramel" flavour was what Marion was after. Panko breadcrumbs are simply Japanese breadcrumbs which are flaky and crispy, they are found in Asian supermarkets. If I made this dish again I would possibly just have the mangos, lychees, star fruit and coconut granita with a sprinkle of praline and skip the caramel, chilli sugar and mint leaves. It was however fun making all the components and a definite taste experience! "A party for the palate", as one guest put it!

To serve with coffee I made a very rich and very delicious Vanilla Truffle (also in Donna Hay's Marie Claire, Flavours cookbook). Melted white chocolate, butter, vanilla extract and seeds from a vanilla bean....extremely bad for you! You melt all the ingredients together, set in the fridge and then to serve you cut into small squares and dust two sides of the square with icing sugar. A nice treat to end a yummy meal.