Restaurant in MY OWN living room!

Saturday 24th October

Restaurant: My lounge
Price per person: £3.24
Rating: 5 out of 5 of course!

Currently Munching: More Onuga and rice cakes

My best friend Kat has been staying over for a few days and we are supposed to go out for drinks and food tonight in Shoreditch. On closer inspection of our wallets we decided to invite everyone over to a dinner party! As the recession keeps kicking all of us in the bank balance eating in has indeed become the new eating out. My parents have long celebrated the benefits of eating in over going to a restaurant – they know what they will be eating will be of a standard they enjoy, they can drink and not worry about the drive home, and yes there is the washing up but there is also the joy of leftovers. Plus there is nothing like being able to relax in your own home with your friends without feeling the eyes of the hostess’s pressuring you for the table back! Kat and mine’s favourite show is Come Dine with Me, so we decided to go for a three course meal that would win any week. Off to Sainsburys and we manage to get everything we need for a three course meal for 6 for £19.49. That didn’t include the two bottles of wine, but it did include a small bottle of Brandy that we needed for cooking. I think the trick is when it comes to cooking on the cheap is just being inventive with your ideas, and not fearing away from the greatness that is the basic’s range. As long as the food is cooked well and seasoned well it doesn’t matter if it was a little ugly in its former life. Of course in an ideal world we would all shop local and support our local businesses…but I am afraid I am a realist and until my local grocer can do me 1.5kg of onions for 68p like the basic’s range does then Sainsburys retains my custom for now!

So the menu was as follows: French Onion soup to start, Mixed Mushroom stroganoff with rice and vegetables for main and an individual banoffee pie for pudding. This menu worked as their were ingredients for the starter and main that were repeated so it saved us money as we just needed to buy a few bulk items rather than lots of little things. The soup was so easy to make – neither of us had ever tried before but I did have a tip up my sleeve from a good friend and old house mate of mine Helen; when cooking the onions down in the butter when they stick a bit on the bottom and side and leave those crispy burnt bits on the pan scrape them off with your wooded spoon and keep mixing them through as the onions soften as that is all the lovely sugars from the onions caramelising and will make the soup lovely and sweet. Kat added a tiny teaspoon of sugar too but it is not needed if you prefer it not so caramelised. You are then supposed to coat the cooked onions with flour before pouring on hot white wine and beef stock but I forgot this step…oooppps! Turned out it did not affect the thickness of the sauce and as I have a wheat allergy it is good to know that the recipe worked fine without the added flour. Even though the recipe asked for beef stock we used vegetable as we had lovely Sarah coming for dinner who is brilliant but a vegetarian so we had to cater for her – it’s a good thing we love her so much…Point is the soup was full of flavour with the vegetable stock too so I think it is absolutely fine to substitute without loosing any richness from the soup. It was then cooked down, bit of water added here and there as we wished until it was the thickness we wanted and that was it, job done! You could add some thyme or bay leave but we couldn’t afford these items on the budget and the soup was amazing without. When doing a vegetarian dinner for meat eaters I think mushrooms are always a good option as their texture and robustness is often likened to meat and they certainly are the steak of the vegetable world. A tip for making a successful stroganoff, meat or vegetable based, is as follows: step away from the red pepper and the chopped tomatoes!!! The amount of times I have had a disappointing stroganoff and the culprits have been the unnecessary addition of anything red! Stroganoff is meant to essentially be a rich dinner of meat, cream and onions deliciously flavoured with masarla or wine. If you really can’t do without then serve roasted cherry tomatoes and red bell peppers as a side vegetable, just keep them out of the sauce!!! I am now going to tell you the story of the invention of stroganoff as my mate Kat informed me – those who are squeamish skip to the next paragraph! It was invented by Count Pavel Stroganoff in 19th century Russia who originally cooked this dish with human flesh – he had bad teeth and couldn’t handle beef it turns out…apparently he had never heard of chicken…

We served it with cheap and cheerful boil in the bag rice which is great as it seems to not get as sticky as normal rice for some reason, I am sure it is all very scientific. For vegetables there is nothing better than broccoli and green beans with the lovely rich mushroom sauce. Best stroganoff I have ever had (sorry dad!). For the individual banoffee pies we did a layer of buttered digestive biscuit crumbs. These were both basic range ingredients and together cost over a pound less than branded products and did the job fantastically. Just crumb the biscuits in a food processor or give them a bash, stir in a little melted butter and press into the bowls. We left them to cool in the fridge. We them melted butter in a pan and sautéed some sliced bananas before flambéing them in brandy. We had already bought brandy for the stroganoff so we decided to use it here too, ensuring value to the purchase. This went on the biscuit base and was topped with condensed milk which we had boiled in its tin for two hours. This is safer than it sounds to do, just ensure the tin is covered in boiling water the whole time, and that as the water evaporates just make sure you top it up. On top of the caramel we sliced fresh bananas, then whipped double cream and then finally some grated Galaxy chocolate which Jen had kindly brought over as a present! Seriously good pudding – the best bannoffee pie I have ever had, the brandy really gave a sophisticated edge to this easy dish and I will definitely do this again when making this dessert.

Kat and I decided to design a cocktail shot to accompany each course. This is another thing that is great about dining at home, little flourishes and touches you can get inventive with: individual place settings made from home-made truffles, or dressing the table with gold and silver coated sweets like my aunty always does, or unexpected courses which give you the chance to experiment in the kitchen. The shot that accompanied the starter was a mess so I will not talk of that one… We went for a traditional lemon drop for the main, which is lemon juice, vodka and sugar shaken with ice then strained into glasses. The lemon cleanses your palate and awakens your senses so that you are ready for the next course. It is a good way to get over that feeling of fullness that sometimes comes after a starter and gets your taste buds racing again! We did mini Brandy Alexander’s for dessert, using the last of the brandy and some of the double cream we had bought for the puddings, again just shaking it and straining it into glasses before dusting with cocoa (we didn’t have traditional nutmeg but cocoa is lovely with Alexander’s if you don’t have). The mix of flavours with the bannoffee pie was out of this world! The night was great, lots of wine, lots of laughing and lots of chats – the food was better than anything we could have afforded to buy in a restaurant in London and yes the washing up was a bit high but we got to do it the morning after so it didn’t interfere with the fun of the night! It was my first dinner party in my new flat and it will be the first of many I have decided!!!