Le Coop De Pigeon

The grand finale – Roast with veggies and green stuff and then experimental pavlova.  Really, the only reason why it was experimental, is that we hadn’t made pavlova before.

The base worked particularly well. We made a sample size last week to test out the results and I think it worked really well for Sundays dessert.

Nick brought along a great wine by Koltz, I’ll have to remember that one – I really enjoyed it. It was lucky that Claire and Ben were free on Sunday too and they were in Sydney that weekend so even better to join us for some lunch.

Officially, yes Sunday was lunch, but in the UK lunch is dinner so it still counts!

Thanks to Mish, Nick Ben and Claire for coming over, especially when it was so nice outside, and really quite a warm day for a hot roast!

Mexi-wraps is something that Pete and I eat pretty regularly, usually when there’s left over meat or sometimes if we haven’t got much prepared, we make it from just beans. We’ve found this great product which we buy from “The Essential Ingredient” in Rozelle. Its a Mole base. Mole is a sauce that has chocolate and chilli and assorted spices. Its not sweet like chocolate, it just gives the sauce a really earthy taste to it.

We change the recipe to add some extra tomatoes, sometimes an extra square of dark chocolate, its always a little experimental. This time we used an extra kick of chilli – adding a chilli from the chilli plant Jess and Ingrid gave us when they had visited earlier in the week. Pete tried a snippet. It was, as expected, hot.

Davros and Gihan got right into the spirit of Mexico and dressed with a little salsa flava. Davros even supplied the gypsy like tunes for the evening! We mixed up a rum cocktail and got wrapping.

Continuing with chocolate for dessert and some leftover baklava from Fridays dinner. We were rightfully full.

Janise and Adam visited after work on Friday. I’d started work late on Friday so all the prep for the lamb curry was ready in the morning.

When we cook curry, we usually always use massaman paste and coconut milk. Its the best combo and not too spicy and a bit nutty. This photo of Nee and Adam I think is pretty funny. Janise is always a good sport when we tease her, (usually about stuff shes preparing for their wedding which is coming up soon wedding) and I think Adams expression is classic!

We had a Friday bevvie, boys beer and gals cider – no time to get through the bottle of red they had bought along for us. A definite raincheck.

So I know I’ve had some good photos of the spread we put on for the dinners but this time, the only photo I had was a half eaten plate of Pete’s curry and rice, half mixed through, half sauce blotched across the plate. He went for two full serves of curry. It was crazy-like. Don’t know where he puts it.

Here is an example of why there is no photo of the curry. Even the Japanese, masters of the most beautiful sushi, a canvas of pretty colours and shapes, can’t make curry look good, even in plastic form!

Actually I should have gotten some photos of the Baklava Janise picked up on the way home from from Alba’s in Dulwich Hill. Best in Sydney. But you know what, as I said at the start, it was Friday and my brain is always a bit fried at the end of the working week.

Kay and Andrew visited us on Thursday. We had a great beer from Mad Brewers which Kay bought from work, and she also brought back from her trip to Japan some sweets!!! There are some new ones that I hadn’t tried before so it was a nice surprise.

The choc strawberry lollies Kay recommended are the best! I will have to ration them though because I don’t think you can get them from Australia.

I made my mums recipe – pasta with veal. Served with some rocket and parmesan. I forgot to take pictures of the pasta when we served it, so this was some leftovers that I snapped.

So far I have noticed, with all dinners, there have been great stories and great advice and tips so I will have a list of things to follow up on next week – the best things are learned from friends and family so its definitely worth catching up with everyone more often.

Jess and Ingrid from White visited us last night. They bought some champs and vino – and a firey little chilli plant (those chillis look extreme) to celebrate the arrival of the new table.

They had some hot travel tips as well as letting us know some highlights to look out for at the Mona gallery in Hobart. Next time, Ingrid promises to bring her hyperactive sausage dog, Kazumi to visit!

Pete picked some really nice salmon from DiCosti at the fish market – served with a massive pile of snow peas, beans and sugar snaps. We had some starfruit, kiwi, figs, pineapple passionfruit and strawberries for dessert.

Thanks Ingrid and Jess for coming to visit – lets try Chiswick soon – I’ll make sure I wear my heals – you gals are so tall!

It had been a long while since the original Fort Knox crew had all been in one room together, it was great to catch up again. It was Stu’s birthday the day before, so it made the night extra special.

The sausages were bought from AC butchery and they were Wagyu Beef. They had come 1st place in the 2011 Sausage King competition. Supporting roles of mash and veggies made a royal meal.

Carly bought some delicious Pinot Noir and Stu bought chocolates, even though they knew they weren’t to bring anything, they knew my weakness for red wine and chocolate combos – luckily we didn’t get through the second bottle of red Carly had bought along!

Delicious chocolates from Haigh’s and and spare of the moment Donna Hay macaroons turned the desert into a 3 course sweets fest with icecream starting the sugar induced celebration.

Carly had bought these cute little foodie stickers – she and I agree that Chocolate for brekkie is absolutely appropriate!

Monday: Free range chicken drumsticks – then Portuguese tarts.

Jon visited on Monday night. It was great that he could make it, its always a long drive from Wollongong, and he had been working all day! We were sad that Jen couldn’t make it, but at least we had caught up with her recently at “The Vault” which was a great night out.

We marinated some chicken drumsticks in this Peri Peri sauce which Pete found recently in local Petersham village. It was spicy but not too hot, had a really nice flavour and coated the chicken well. We served it with some cous cous and greek salad.

Following the Lil-Portugal flava, I picked up these Portugese tarts from Honeymoon Cafe in Petersham. Everyone raves about Sweet Belem, but I recon these are better. The service is better from Honeymoon too – that was the deal clincher for me.

To celebrate the arrival of our new table, we will be cooking seven dinners in seven days.

We invited round a crew to celebrate with us – a couple of people each day to share a meal, enjoy some company (and the awesome retro table) and to mark an ending of renovations.

We are cooking meals that we would normally eat on our weeknights anyway, so we thought, why not just cook a little extra and share it. Some people we haven’t seen in a long time, others have not yet been to visit, so it was a good way to catch up with friends turned strangers!!