Beer-up-the-bum chicken and the rest of April's dinner party menu

I am never going to do this on time, am I? Anyway, we had friends and my parents over for dinner last weekend and I thought I would share the menu as April's dinner party menu.

Salmon ravioli in a Thai sauce with roasted sweet potato

Ingredients as per links below plus:
1 x sweet potato
2 x salmon fillets 

serves 6

So, this starter was inspired by a salmon Thai green curry I recently made. It is based on JO's Green Curry recipe for the sauce and JO's recipe for making pasta. It is probably important at this stage to add in that my pasta machine broke and I couldn't actually make ravioli so used fresh tagliolini instead. Annoying. New pasta machine has been ordered. Also important to note that I can and have made ravioli before.....

Turn the oven on to 180 degrees. Right, make up pasta using 300g flour and 3 eggs and pop in the fridge as per instructions. While the pasta is in the fridge, peel and chop the sweet potato into small cubes. Put the sweet potato into an ovenproof dish, drizzle with olive oil and put into the oven for 20 mins or until soft. Make up the curry sauce. Don't overpower with chilli..... Also, I always use dried lemongrass as I can never find fresh lemongrass in the shops. I just add two sticks to the sauce while it is cooking. Once the sauce is bubbling away, add two salmon fillets to the sauce and poach until cooked through. Remove and put aside. You can leave the sauce to tick away and thicken or turn off until needed.

By this stage, the pasta should be ready for rolling. If you don't know how to roll, fill and make ravioli, here is a guide. A quick Google gives lots of ideas. Of course you can skip this altogether and use fresh tagliolini....... So, make up your ravioli using the flaked salmon. I use a round cookie cutter about 5cm in diameter for my ravioli. I didn't add anything else to the salmon.

Assembly - cook your ravioli in a pot of boiling, salted water for a few minutes until tender. I would serve about 3-4 small raviolies (is that a word?) in the centre of a pasta bowl and drizzle a decent amount of the Thai sauce over the top and add in some sweet potato cubes. If you are using fresh tagliolini, toss the pasta with some sauce, arrange in a nest with flaked salmon on top, sweet potato around the nest and drizzle round more suace!

Nom nom.....

Beer-up-the-bum chicken with baby roasties and a green salad

I love braaing beer-up-the-bum chicken. It is always a crowd pleaser and so easy to do. Through trial and error, I would suggest that a pair of Weber braai mitts is purchased before you attempt this. They certainly help getting the chicken both in and out of the braai.

Ingredients:

2 x whole chickens
2 x long cans of lager
baby potatoes



Salad:
½ a cucumber
200g sugar snap peas
4 spring onions
1 little gem lettuce
200g radishes
1 lime
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
soy sauce

Right, open your beers and pour out about a third. I like to put salt, pepper and a bit of worcestershire sauce on the chicken. Light your braai and keep the coals to the sides with a large space in the middle. When the flames have died down but the coals are still really hot, put the chickens onto the open cans and stand it up in the braai inbetween the coals. See below:

Put the lid on and leave for 1.5hrs (obviously less for a small chicken or more for a giant one!). I usually check on them after about 10 mins as the cans often crumple in the heat and the birds need righting again.

While the chickens are braaing away, put your potatoes into a roasting pan, toss in some olive oil and put in the oven at 180 degrees for an hour. After that hour, I usually trun the oven off and leave them in to dry out a bit. So, your chickens are on the braai, the potatoes are in the oven and time to pull the Magimix out and sort your salad. Put the fine grater attachment on the Magimix (or other food processor) and slice all the veg for your salad. Tip out onto a big platter, grate over the lime zest and dress with lime juice, soy sauce and olive oil to taste.

Once your chickens are ready, take them out, carve and serve with the potatoes and salad. Yummy!

Raspberry meringue pavolvas 

 

Ingredients

• 3  egg whites
• 1-2tsp raspberry vinegar (you find this at vast expense at Waitrose)
• 150 gram(s) caster sugar
• 1-2tsp pink food colouring
• For the topping
• 100 ml (3 1/2fl oz) double cream
• 2-3tsp caster sugar
• 250 gram(s) fresh raspberries
• Pink baking sugar, for sprinkling

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 120ºC/100ºC fan/Gas 1/2. Line a large, heavy-based baking sheet with non-stick baking parchment.
2. Using an electric whisk, beat the egg whites and raspberry vinegar in a clean bowl until the whites double in volume and hold peaks. Keep the whisk running and add the sugar 1tbsp at a time, until all the sugar is used and the whites are glossy. Add the food colouring to the mixture and, using a spatula, swirl to create a marbled effect.
3. Carefully spoon 4 x 10-12cm (4-5in) circles of the mixture onto the baking parchment, making a little 'nest' in the centre of each. Bake in the preheated oven for 2 hours until they are crisp and lift off the paper easily. Leave to cool (at this point you can store them for up to a week in an airtight container). I tend to make more smaller meringues and then cook them for a little bit less. This recipe makes loads.
4. To serve, whisk the cream and sugar until softly peaked. Spoon into the centre of each meringue, top with raspberries, sprinkle with pink baking sugar and serve.

 Enjoy your dinner x