One of the TV shows I love to watch is called Come Dine With Me. On this show, four or five contestants throw a 3-course dinner party for the others on consecutive nights in a week. Usually these contestants live in the same region. I often try to think what my menu would be if I were to take part in this show….
Usually my soups are a hit with friends and family, but so often on this show the contestants slam anyone who has served soup as taking an easy way out of the starter course. So, I have decided that I would do scallops and black pudding as a starter. It’s served in restaurants and it’s really typical of Scottish food, so (whoop!) the starter is confirmed. It doesn’t matter that I haven’t cooked scallops in oh about a decade right? I know I live in Scotland and all, but these things are expensive!
Now, on to the main. This is where it gets hard. I love fish and seafood, I always order it on a menu. And I always avoid the Salmon on the menu. Immediately, from the comments on the show I can understand I’m going to fail at this task. Apparently the general public doesn’t really like fish and seafood. Also, the well-known fish of Scotland is indeed the Salmon, so I have well and truly failed at being Scottish. Lamb is an alternative – very, very Scottish. Everybody in the world seems to like lamb a touch pink. I get that, it’s yummy and tender and juicy. However, growing up my family (and now my hubby) like their lamb well done. None of the pink nonsense they say – sigh. Also, all the insertion of herbs and garlic into the lamb has been outlawed in my house now. My very Scottish husband insists that none of that stuff goes onto the meat. If the meat is good meat from the butcher, that’s flavor enough he says. Already, I wouldn’t be able to practice cooking lamb until just a little pink (because it would be slated by my family) and I wouldn’t be able to place any herbs on it. I’ve lost the competition if I were to do lamb. What does that leave me with? Chicken? Pork? Beef?
I have a bad track record with beef. It gets dry. I don’t like the taste. Let’s just skip over that.
Pork – eh I can do the crackling, but I’m not sure that pork is the way to win a cooking competition.
Everybody likes chicken though! Right? I would think one would stand a better chance cooking chicken. The contestants on the show always ridicule people who serve chicken as taking the easy way out. But, you can do a lot with chicken I think, this would probably be my choice. I haven’t got to a ‘how’ yet though. BBQ on a charcoal grill would be yummy, but the timing could go wrong with that. They sell chicken breasts stuffed with black pudding at the local butchers – my husband absolutely loves this. While I don’t think it would be a good idea to serve black pudding in two of the three courses I think I like the idea of chicken breasts stuffed with something. Add some potatoes and veg and there’s the main course right there. Great. I love pumpkin pie (not the terribly sweet dessert ones) with a main, but it’s not common up here so, again, I can’t go with my own impulses. Sigh. I’ll probably need a lot of time to decide to the sides.
Now for the dessert. I’m not one for sweets. I know a lot of people like chocolate, and equally a lot of people don’t. What would be a dinner party worthy dessert? In my house it’s the simple rustic things that win – brownies with ice-cream or, trifle and custard. But then this is a simple household in a rural and remote area. So, I suppose cheesecake would be better for a dinner party? Or, would I go through the stress of doing a couple little desserts and serving on a tray?
All this begs the question, how much time do people have to prepare for this dinner party? I’ve never really focused on it until now, but I don’t think you can prep or make ahead the day before. I’ve never seen that on the show. It is all usually done that day. ARGH!
Mousse! Mousse is a thing that people seem to make in a jiffy. They mix and combine and pour into little glasses and that’s it right? I think I need to look up some recipes. Who knew planning for a theoretical menu for this TV show would be so difficult!
I think maybe dinner parties in real life are easier – you can have some different choices for the main so there’s something for the meat lover as well as a fish option. Also, you can select the personalities you’re having over as you know them well, so you know if you’re in for a simple food, lots of laughs get together on the patio or a slightly more posh, but still friendly and non-judgmental roast-dinner type get together at the dining table.
I don’t think I could handle being a contestant on that TV show. Big up to those who sign up for it – it’s stressing me out just thinking about what I’d serve up.
I do make good chocolate-orange brownies though! Here’s the recipe for anyone interested. (Excuse the crumbs, I had to shove a couple into my mouth before I thought to snap the pic!)
CHOCOLATE-ORANGE BROWNIES
Ingredients
- 225g butter
- 275g soft light brown sugar
- 200g dark chocolate (or chocolate bars with orange)
- Zest of 1 large orange
- Juice of ½ orange
- 4 eggs
- 1tsp orange extract
- Large pinch of salt
- 110g plain flour
- 30g cocoa powder
- 1tsp baking powder
- 110g milk chocolate chips (or any kind of chocolate chip you like)
- Preheat the oven to 180c/ 350f/ Gas 4. Grease and flour a 8inch square baking tin.
- Melt the butter, sugar and chocolate gently (you can do this in a bowl over a pan of boiling water, in the microwave at very short intervals or directly in a pan on the stove on a very very low head stirring continuously (this last one is the method i use)).
- After it’s all melted leave to cool.
- Zest the orange and squeeze the juice from half of it. Then mix well with eggs, orange extract and salt. It will look a bit like a gross mixture but don’t be put off – yumminess is coming!
- Stir in the orange juice mixture to the melted chocolate mixture. Again, don’t be put off by how things may look at this point.
- Sift the dry ingredients together and fold into the chocolate mixture from step 5.
- Add your additional chocolate chips.
- Pour the lot into the prepared cake pan and bake for half an hour for fudgy brownies or just a few minutes longer for more cakey brownies. If you’re using a pan of a different size keep checking on the mixture every 3-4 minutes after the 25 min mark to make sure you get the type of brownie you like.
- Let cool completely before cutting and serving.
- Store in airtight container.
I hope you like this recipe. The basics are the same for any kind of brownie. All good brownies always have loads of eggs!
