Last weekend was the first of my monthly dinner parties. Overall I think it went reasonably well. The cuisine was Greek and my inspiration came from the cooking class I went to a couple of weeks back and a Greek cook book my sister gave me last year for xmas.
The menu was
Mains
The menu was
Mains
- Olive bread
- Roasted capsicum with chorizo
- Eggplant and fetta salad
- Greek salad
- Lamb and spinach phyllo
Dessert
- Triangular chocolate cheesecake
The preparation started quite late and so I was late in preparing everything which was a little annoying. Won't do that again. I think I've now mastered the olive bread which is great because it seems to be a winner.
On a tangent I went to the SBS Food Journey today and watched Gabriel Gate cook duck and crepes. One of the things he said was important in being a good cook was to try a new dish every month and two cook the dish 3 or 4 times in order to master it. I was rather chuffed with that comment given that that's exactly the intention behind my monthly dinners. It's worth noting that Gabriel is a fantastic presenter and I highly recommend you go to one of his demonstrations whenever you have the chance.
The roasting of the capsicum and eggplant was better the second time around as I left them on the coals longer and so they ended up cooked all the way through. I think I've also now gotten the hang of phyllo pastry. The pastry for the lamb came out brown and crispy with only a little softness in the middle where the filling was concentrated. Could have added more spinach as the filling was a not quite thick enough.
Unfortunately I didn't have time to take any photos which I plan to correct the next time around. The other sad news is that this Month's dinner is going to be shifted to the first weekend in April as I've just run out of weekends in March.
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