Full Table

It has once again been far too long between posts!! It seems like whenever I end a previous post with a blurb about making sure I will post more frequently I jinx myself. This time the men in our families have been unwell again :( Between my dad, hubby's dad and hubby's granddad there have been angiograms, a stroke, heart attack and quadruple bypass surgery, - so lots of distraction. Hopefully they are all on the mend now!!!

In amongst the chaos I managed to recently host a lovely catch up dinner party for 8 dear friends while a one of these friends was visiting from Australia - so 10 guests including us - which is the most i've ever cooked for other than for family (where the pressure to succeed is never so great).

I thought I'd share with you my menu for the night. I decided to mix some old faithful recipes with some recipes I'd never tried before so that I was not being boring and challenging myself!! here we go....

Canapes:

- Artichoke, smoked chicken and cream cheese puff pastry pinwheels (new recipe I invented).

- Garlic, ginger and chilli prawn stacks (old faithful).

Entree:

- Parsnip and ham hock soup with apple and nutmeg (new recipe see in full below).

- Served with blue cheese and honey bruschetta (old faithful).

Main Course:

- Mustard, thyme and rosemary crumb crusted eye fillet.

- Roast beetroot, feta and mint, orzo salad.

- Gourmet potatoes with garlic aioli.

- Lemon butter brocoli (all old faithfuls).

Dessert:

- Baked chocolate marscapone cheesecake (new recipe see in full below).

The meal and evening were a great success (except for the dreadfully overcooked brocoli). I have to say the soup and the cheesecake were DIVINE and hence I've shared the recipes below. I actually loved cooking for 10 as it was so satisfying to use up all the food instead of having mountains of leftovers like I usually do. I also loved putting all my cutlery and crockery to use, including my new charger plates that were such a great find last week (as seen in the photo). They are actually platters I found on sale and I thought they would make great charger plates and they did. Such a simple way to make a table formal and pretty.

Anyway I hope you enjoy these recipes as much as I did :)

Parsnip and ham hock soup with apple and nutmeg:

1 ham or bacon hock (confession I used bacon bones as I find they have more depth of flavour)

1.5 litres of water

1 sprig of lemon thyme or ordinary thyme

4 large parsnips, peeled and diced

1 small onion diced

25g butter

2 sweet apples, peeled and diced

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Garnish: cream, thyme, pepper

Above serves 6.

Simmer hock in water for 1 hour (I did 2 hours which reduced the liquid and meant I had to add more water at the end process).

Remove and set aside hock, striping meat to add later.

Cool stock and remove fat (I cooled overnight).

Add thyme, parsnips and onion to stock and simmer for 40min.

Discard thyme and process till smooth, then add meat to soup.

Heat butter and saute apple and nutmeg for 5 min, add to the soup and heat to serve.

Add garnish.

Baked Chocolate Marscapone Cheesecake:

Crust:

1.5 cups of biscuit crumb (I used a mix of malt biscuits and digestives and I actually upped this to 2 cups and altered the rest of the crust ingredients accordingly as I thought 1.5 would be a bit stingy and I was right!)

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup baking cocoa

1/2 cup butter, melted

Filling:

16 ounces (480 grams) cream cheese softened

1 and 3/4 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

16 ounces (480 grams) marscapone cheese

6 eggs (I used 4 large eggs from our own chooks)

7 ounces bittersweet chocolate melted

For the crust, combine the crumbs, sugar and cocoa in a bowl and mix well, add butter, stir till crumbly. Press the mixture over the bottom and up the side of a 9 inch spring form pan.

For the filling, preheat the oven to 350 degrees (apparently around 180 celcius but I went with 160 for my fan oven). Beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy, add marscapone and beat till blended. Add eggs one at a time mixing well after each. Add chocolate and mix together well.

Spread the mixture into the pan. Bake in a water bath for 1 and 3/4 hours. Cool pan on rack then chill for 8-10 hours before serving.

Note: I would recommend covering the pan with foil after an hour. I thought mine was burning and I took it out a 1/2 hr early thinking it was done. I chilled it over night and in the morning it was still a tad wobbly. After some trusty googling for a quick fix I braved another attempt at baking it in a water bath this time wrapping the tin in foil to avoid drying the base. I baked it for another hour and then thought I ruined it completely as the condensation from the foil made it look water logged!!! After getting over my defeat I decided to just stick it in the fridge and call it a "mousse cake" if it was still a flop. The end result?? a DELICIOUS cheesecake. It was soooooooo yummy and the perfect texture. The crust was like a brownie almost - soooo good. I would recommend sticking to the original recipe but it goes to show you can save a mistake (although I only had the luxury off the save as I had baked it the night before the dinner party and not the day of:)

Olivia :)