Pretty much since Camila and I met we've been talking about the idea of having a massive cook-up. Over summer we tried out a few recipes together and talked about it some more, putting little wisps of ideas out there to each other. Last weekend it finally happened and BOY did we cook. We both started cooking the day before, pre-baking breads, tart shells, cakes and whipping up things like curry pastes and dips. We wrote lists of dishes and compared them and decided to pretty much make everything. On the day we got together and cooked for about 7 hours straight.
Camila is a vegetarian but I am not. I don't cook a huge amount of meat and find vegetarian cooking to be more of a creative challenge so we decided to go the whole vege-feast idea and stick to a no-meat theme. We had 17 people all up and everyone was full to bursting point.
It was a wonderful day of cooking for Camila and I, and we had plenty of time to chat and catch up, and finally, when all was cooked, to drink a whole lot of wine...
In the end, we served:
(and I may leave things out by accident...Camila please edit this if you see something missing!)
green curry with zucchini and eggplant
tagine (chickpea, pumpkin and olive)
white bean and garlic mash
five spice crispy fried okra
potato parmesan gratin
chilli cauliflower
pepita pesto lentils
haloumi barley salad
beetroot feta salad
asparagas tart
crunchy hazelnut green beans
garlic mayonnaise with crudites
sweet potato dumplings and dipping sauce
sweet potato bread
beetroot bread
chilli cheese cornbread
white bean and capsicum dip
hummous
sumac pita crisps
cheese biscuits
almond biscotti
hazelnut cake with chocolate ganache
strawberry and lemon cream tart
apple crumble with whipped cream
All home made from scratch! Lots of pre-planning and preparation were required. What follows are some photos of the food (not comprehensive, some things are missing!) and the people enjoying it. We've decided to make it a yearly event (it was too tiring to do more often that that!).
(The queue for dessert)
2 comments:
Wow - a feast indeed! Would you care to share any of the recipes? I was going to request just one or two specific ones, but I'm having trouble deciding which items on the list sound most delicious of all. :-)
Of course I am willing to share the recipes! Just the thought of writing ALL of them out seemed way too daunting. But I've had quite a few requests for the lentil and beetroot salad recipe, and the green curry. so I best hop to it... :-)
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