In between all the eating out I do, sometimes I actually manage to cook for myself (and others) too. Helpful, seeing as I run a pop up restaurant........ Honestly though, it often feels like I'm either only recipe testing or cooking for 30+ people with little in between. I've done a lot of both of the above recently and wanted to share some of it here.
Starting small, I made this dish as recipe testing disguised as Friday night dinner for the girls on my last Friday night in my old flat. I'd been invited to try out some meat from Selfridges' new butcher, Campbell Brothers, so picked up a rack of lamb, ribeye steak and strip of pork belly. None was quite enough to feed all three of us, so I seared the steak and cooked the lamb off in the oven after browning it, and popped it on top of some truffled cauliflower puree (cooked in milk then drained and whizzed in the blender with butter and truffle paste), steamed cavolo nero and purple sprouting broccoli, roast purple carrots and squash, and finished it off with fresh blackberries.
Another hit with the girls were the tacos I made using Wahaca's new taco kits. Normally I'm a make-it-myself kinda girl, but the marinades and salsas that come in the Wahaca kits with the corn tortillas are really good. Below are the flank steak marinated in chipotle served with herbs and chillies, and a tuna marinated in lime juice with the tomato and garlic salsa, avocado and more herb salad.
From cooking for 2/3 to cooking for 50.... I offered my services helping out some mates who wanted to put on a supper club to raise money for a Sahara trek they'd done for the charity Trekstock, who support young people with cancer. They hired a proper chef so I just followed orders as he created an epic Moroccan inspired feast for 50 people. It was such a fun evening, and inspired me so much that I've signed up to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in August 2017 for the same charity..............! Please feel free to sponsor me if you want to donate to the cause!
Jumping all over the place calendar wise, I hosted a Thanksgiving pop up (on Thanksgiving...) for Tiki Chris, who's celebrated 10 years of blogging this year with 10 different hosted events. It was a fun, friendly night and I think I managed to pull off cooking turkey for 30 for the first time professionally. One up from last year when I spent the afternoon FaceTiming my mate's turkey!
2016 has also seen me doing a lot more food for press events, particularly for River Island, which I love doing. I make canapes and nibbles for their ANEVENINGWITH events which have been hosted by lots of lovely ladies including editor of Glamour magazine Jo Elvin, singer and all round cool girl Whinnie Williams, and Sunday Times fashion chic Pandora Sykes.
Last but not least, and definitely not all, but I'm not going to bore you with everything I've cooked this year, one of my cooking highlights was a takeover I did at Jeremy Pang's School of Wok. I used influences from Asia to design a menu that was still very much A Little Lusciousness, kicking things off with yuzu marinated salmon, pickled radish and lotus root crisps. I'm hoping to do more at SoW in 2017 so watch this space!
Starting small, I made this dish as recipe testing disguised as Friday night dinner for the girls on my last Friday night in my old flat. I'd been invited to try out some meat from Selfridges' new butcher, Campbell Brothers, so picked up a rack of lamb, ribeye steak and strip of pork belly. None was quite enough to feed all three of us, so I seared the steak and cooked the lamb off in the oven after browning it, and popped it on top of some truffled cauliflower puree (cooked in milk then drained and whizzed in the blender with butter and truffle paste), steamed cavolo nero and purple sprouting broccoli, roast purple carrots and squash, and finished it off with fresh blackberries.
Another hit with the girls were the tacos I made using Wahaca's new taco kits. Normally I'm a make-it-myself kinda girl, but the marinades and salsas that come in the Wahaca kits with the corn tortillas are really good. Below are the flank steak marinated in chipotle served with herbs and chillies, and a tuna marinated in lime juice with the tomato and garlic salsa, avocado and more herb salad.
From cooking for 2/3 to cooking for 50.... I offered my services helping out some mates who wanted to put on a supper club to raise money for a Sahara trek they'd done for the charity Trekstock, who support young people with cancer. They hired a proper chef so I just followed orders as he created an epic Moroccan inspired feast for 50 people. It was such a fun evening, and inspired me so much that I've signed up to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in August 2017 for the same charity..............! Please feel free to sponsor me if you want to donate to the cause!
Jumping all over the place calendar wise, I hosted a Thanksgiving pop up (on Thanksgiving...) for Tiki Chris, who's celebrated 10 years of blogging this year with 10 different hosted events. It was a fun, friendly night and I think I managed to pull off cooking turkey for 30 for the first time professionally. One up from last year when I spent the afternoon FaceTiming my mate's turkey!
2016 has also seen me doing a lot more food for press events, particularly for River Island, which I love doing. I make canapes and nibbles for their ANEVENINGWITH events which have been hosted by lots of lovely ladies including editor of Glamour magazine Jo Elvin, singer and all round cool girl Whinnie Williams, and Sunday Times fashion chic Pandora Sykes.
Last but not least, and definitely not all, but I'm not going to bore you with everything I've cooked this year, one of my cooking highlights was a takeover I did at Jeremy Pang's School of Wok. I used influences from Asia to design a menu that was still very much A Little Lusciousness, kicking things off with yuzu marinated salmon, pickled radish and lotus root crisps. I'm hoping to do more at SoW in 2017 so watch this space!
All these meals look insanely delicious :)
ReplyDeleteRachael xx.
theteacozykithen.blogspot.co.uk
Thanks Rachael!
DeleteRosie xx