So, I disappear for a month long jaunt round south america and come back to see the foodies in my twitter stream talking about a ‘Blaggers Banquet’. Much confusion ensues until I find some information from Niamh at eatlikeagirl.com, which explains that the concept is to host a banquet where all the food has been blagged from providers. Whether it is the salt, gin or meat.
The concept sounded great, but alas it was on a Sunday AND in London. Nevertheless, I decided that on Sunday morning, whilst sitting in Birmingham having my lunch that I would indeed attend, that evening the Blaggers Banquet, at Hawksmoor.
Nothing like a pop down to Euston, a tube across to Liverpool St, a wander in Spitalfields market before arriving at Hawksmoor (after walking past it twice) just before 6.
There was a good crowd, with what appeared to be an even amount of Bloggers/Blaggers – who had been prepping the veg, venue, and goodie bags all day, to punters – aka me.
There was some amazing attentive service, Martinis and Canapes were had. Before being seated for some familystyle food service, along with matching wines. We had some lovely Monkfish to start (which had been driven up from the coast that morning), then moved onto a Beef Stew, Lamb Hotpot and Buffalo Steak with Bernaise sauce. Yes thats correct, three different meats for mains – I certainly enjoyed the food – but felt a bit full by the end of the course.
The table, by now was full of plates, and glasses – everyone seemed to have a few cocktails, red and white wine, plus some water. It was amazing to think that everything being consumed had been donated in the name of charity – and just shows what can be done with determination.
Raffle time commenced, where I managed to take home both the Bols Genever and the X chocolates. 2 prizes from 5 tickets is a rather splendid result. There were some other fabulous prizes including a cookery lesson with Thomasina Miers, no dud prizes here!
Dessert – well Jelly Boobs by Bompas and Parr and Chocolate Fondant Cake. The jelly was lovely, and half the fun was watching the ’staff’ release the jellies from the mould. I do like this trend of having two or three things per course!
It was a delightful time, and certainly worth the effort to get there and back ( I ran out into a taxi to the station at 11, got back at 2AM)
Folks,
It’s been quiet round here, thats partly because my friend Gin has been over.
Therefore, I’ve declared Saturday 13th June 2009 to be Gin Day.
Check it out, spread the word, and lets all enjoy a drink this weekend:
http://ginday.tumblr.com/
Back with the chocolate theme (at this rate the blogs more about sweet things than savoury, though I’m not saying that it is a bad thing!)
For those who like chocolate, things need to be simple, nothing too fancy. I adore chocolate truffles, you get the luxurious flavour of chocolate melting away. The issue is, they see to be damn expensive for just one or two little truffles with your coffee.
Fret not, as they are easy enough to make, as long as you don’t mind getting your hands messy.
Makes 18-24 truffles (dependent on size/greed etc)
- Heat the cream(115 ml) and butter ( 15 gm) in a saucepan, and bring to the boil
- Pour this over 150 gm of broken dark chocolate
- Allow this to stand (2/3 minutes) to melt the chocolate
- Stir with a whisk till smooth
Then just take this mixture, and put it in your fridge for a couple of hours (or overnight)
It is then onto the fun part, take spoonfulls of your truffle mixture and roll them into a ball and coat with cocoa powder.
Once created, place them back in the fridge to firm up. They will last for a week or two, but it is likely that friends and family will have made sure they don’t!
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