On holiday in the south of France last week with four other foodie types and some clever bod had an idea: why not make use of the local produce and the villa’s fab kitchen in a Come-dine-with-me-style cook-off? The Channel 4 TV show is one of my guilty pleasures so I was pretty excited when our names went into an ashtray (no hat was available at the time) and we were each allocated a course to cook.
The menu on the night was as follows:
Canapés
Chilled cucumber and dill soup
Pea and parmesan arancini
Mini moules mariniere
Starter (by @simongoble)
Fresh vegetable risotto with gorgonzola
Fish Course (by @COOKBOOK_HQ)
Cod with a herb and multi-seed crust, roasted vine tomatoes
Main Course (by non-tweeter Aaron)
Spicy Tuscan bean stew with chorizo
Dessert (by @dsingleton)
Pear tarte tatin and homemade lavender ice cream
I don’t really do delicate food – as you can see from some of the big old cakes that feature on this blog – so was initially dismayed when I drew the amuse-bouche/canapé course. I tried my best to scale down dishes that I would normally serve in great big bowls and, surprisingly, it turned out fairly well. So well, in fact, I thought I’d you’d like the recipes to have a go yourself (they serve five).
Chilled cucumber and dill soup
Ingredients
- 1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, coarsely chopped
- 1 onion, coarsely chopped
- 250ml vegetable stock
- 1 teaspoon dried dill
- 125ml double cream
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Place cucumber, onion and stock in a small saucepan, bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer until soft
- Using a blender puree with dill and cream until smooth
- Add salt and pepper according to taste
- Pour into a container with a pouring spout
- Cover and refrigerate to chill until ready to serve (I served mine in some swish looking martini glasses)
Pea and parmesan arancini
Ingredients
- Approx 200g risotto mix (see recipe in link below)
- 50g peas
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 100g breadcrumbs
- 600ml oil for frying
- Rocket leaves to serve
Instructions
- Make up a basic risotto recipe. I have my own depending on what’s in the cupboard but you can find a easy-to-follow one here
- Add a large handful of fresh peas and an extra 100g of parmesan to the risotto mix near the very end of it’s cooking time
- Roll the risotto into walnut-sized balls
- Dip the balls in the beaten egg
- Coat the balls in breadcrumbs
- Deep-fry in the hot oil for 2-3 minutes until golden
- Remove from the oil and place on a sheet of kitchen roll to absorb any excess oil
- Serve on a bed of rocket
Mini moules mariniere
Ingredients
- 1 onion
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 tablespoons of oil
- 500g mussels, de-bearded and carefully scrubbed
- 1 bunch of herbs de provence or similar bouquet garni
- 150ml white wine
- 200ml double cream
- Crusty bread to serve
Instructions
- Fry the onion and garlic in the oil with the herbs in a large, deep saucepan
- Tip in the mussels
- Pour in the wine and simmer for approximately four minutes with a lid on until the mussels are open and pink in colour (discard any that fail to open with the heat – they’ve probably been dead for yonks)
- Remove the parcel of herbs
- Stir in the cream and cook for one more minute
- Serve steaming in little bowls with plenty of crusty bread to mop up the sauce
And here’s the end product, yum!
I’m just glad I didn’t do pudding. After the four types of wine we served with dinner, I’m not sure I would have been able to locate a plate, let alone serve up anything appetising! Indeed, the hangover might be one of the reasons we still haven’t decided who won the competition…