Returning from watching the Lions heroic effort in the first test against South Africa, a new element was added to the challenge today. About four pints before starting to cook. Measurements a little sloppy as a result.
The tarte tatin was pretty good. A savoury delight. There wasn't enough tomato sauce to cover everything. It didn't seem to matter. Buying puff pastry seemed to be cheating, but apparently it's very hard to do right. Speaking of which I tried my first ever hollondaise sauce (well a very quick variant courtesy of Delia) to make eggs benedicte for brunch this morning. Borderline disgusting, I think my hand must have slipped with the vinegar as it was tart to the point of making my mouth pucker as if I'd sucked a lemon. I'll have to look wider for recipes next time. Strangely compelling though and we polished it off with relish.
The main course was a repetition of the dish which kicked this whole thing off. The remarkable tuna with aubergine chutney. Again we barbecued the tuna steaks which gave them an absolutely glorious flavour. The chutney was just as good as before, sweet, with rich varieties of flavour from roasted pine nuts, coriander, muscavado sugar and raisins. I forgot to whip out the camera for this so it remains undocumented.
The eton mess was outrageous. I think I pulped everything too much to a powder rather than moderately crushing everything. Ainsley's variation on this classic features the absolutely inspired step of crumbling malteasers on top. The chocolate and malty crunchiness works brilliantly.
The dinner party guests who drove across from Sheffield to join us, paid the ultimate compliment of asking for the recipes. They can't have the book for a while yet. We've many more to make before this is over.
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