Chez Nu- Food with Friends

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LouLovesFood now has a sister blog!

The other night, my dinner party companion and I cooked our first regular dinner club for friends. We hope to do this on a regular basis, cooking different styles of dinner (from set courses to shared plates) following different themes (themes based on the seasons, such as Bonfire night and summer salads, to cuisines such as Thai, or Indian.)

Friday's supper was a small dinner party of shared salads and a pudding, accompanied by frosted grapes and lime, cucumber and elderflower granita. The desert was an Ottolenghi caramelised macadamia cheesecake and was the highlight of the evening.
There was an idividual start for each guest; figs with honey, parma ham, gorgonzola and walnuts.

Chez-Nu; Food with Friends is a photo blog documenting these occasions, to indulge my obsessive food photography. Please drop by from time to time to see what's going on in our kitchen and dining room...

www.chez-nu.blogspot.com

Thankyou!

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The Dinner Party.

I cannot heave my heart into my mouth.

But I can heave onto a plate, alongside some scallops and samphire. And so I did.
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Last night my food companion (whose blog I hope will soon be up and running!) and I cooked dinner for a friend who is currently staying from New York. There was no thematic link between courses in terms of cuisine or palate- but there was a lot of shared dishes, music, laughter and food appreciation- which I'm sure you will can agree with, makes for a much better dinner party anyway.
The food is all sourced as independantly as possible, with a few fun little trips to the local deli, butcher etc- and even trotting across town to the Spanish foodstore in Notting Hill for the Pata Negra. Getting all the ingredients from each seperate source was such an old school and satisfying way to shop, a blog may have to follow...
But for now, here's a low down of the menu.

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Starters

Seared scallops with saffrons potatoes, asparagus and samphire and aioli.
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Main
Lamb cutlets with a roasted walnut, goats cheese and fig salad.

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The lamb was marinated in thyme and rosemary before being dressed in a beautiful looking sticky sauce of honey, red wine vinegar, cinnamon and star anise.

Salads

Grilled peaches with Bresola and Orange Blossom
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Broad beans with pata negra
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Desserts
Elderflower and creme de cassis Granita
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