August 12th was dinner party 3, set in 1976. Mum and dad had come back from the Bahamas a while ago, and settled in Sheffield...and bought a freezer (which dad still has), and a Good Housekeeping freezer cookbook. In the dinner party planner, mum seemed to experiment with lots of recipes from this book, so my idea was to cook practically everything beforehand, and then on the day I would only need to cook the main course, and everything else would come out of the freezer to be warmed through or defrosted. It worked, in that I was able to go out and meet a friend for coffee, and not be agitating about time, so well done, mum! We had Cosmopolitans as a cocktail (and chicken crackling to nibble on, which I know mum wouldn't have done, but it's so nice I didn't want to just throw the skin away!) We moved onto salmon mousse and melba toast (again, but new guests, so I haven't yet repeated anything for anyone) with shaped butter. Main course was Chicken Marengo, (which is
I commented in the last couple of blog entries about beef stroganoff and my trials and tribulations: well, I think I have now cracked it! After the awful version that I served my dad and brother, I felt I needed to show them that I could actually cook it for a dinner party setting. So, with mum's recipe, and some of her methods, with a slow cooker and tips and hints from the Good Food Facebook group, I succeeded...as follows: For 3 or 4 people Ingredients: 225g steak per person 2 level tsp flour, salt and pepper 225g sliced mushrooms 225g chopped onions 1 tsp crushed garlic 1 tbsp oil 50g butter dash of sherry dash of lemon juice 1 can of consommé (you might need a second can, or you could just use some extra stock) 150ml sour cream 2 tsp cornflour The steak...well, because it's going in a slow cooker, it doesn't have to be best quality. I used rump, which obviously is more expensive than stewing steak, but it did turn out gorgeously melting. Mushrooms, I just used plain