Dinner Party

The other month me and my husband went to an expensive supper club – and although I’m not particularly picky, I didn’t like it very much. During the evening I suggested to do our own dinner party and sent out invites to six of our friends. Well excited I decided to ask everyone for their favourite movies and based my dinner party courses on their choices. Before I became a chef, I always wanted to become a director, so this was quite the blast for me.

For the movie “Total Recall”, set on planet Mars, I’ve decided to go for a red pepper arrancini, filled with mozzarella and chilli jam, accompanied by a dressed rocket salad and a mild smoked pepper and tomato chilli sauce.

The second course was based on “Shawshank Redemption”, the main character dreams about getting out of prison and spending the rest of his life in Mexico.

“Dune”, playing partly on the water planet Caladan was the next course, followed by the main course “Silence of the lambs”. As a palate cleanser we interrupted the meals with a lovely Gin Cocktail. The dessert – and the guests favourites- was based on “Harry Potter – The Philosopher’s Stone”.

Before the dinner party I had a basic idea on how I wanted to plate things, so we did a little trip to IKEA and bought glasses, napkins and some crockery.

As you can see, none of the drawings make any particular sense to anyone that isn’t me, but it was good to have something to refer back to, especially since the basic to do list was three entire pages long and I started cooking Friday night for a party on Saturday afternoon. On Friday I did all of the basics, the stocks, the start of the lamb jus, the cake for the cake pops and all frozen elements and I was quite glad to be able to go to bed after that.

The first course, as mentioned above was the arrancini with a roasted cherry tomato and smoky mild chilli sauce, served in a bamboo boat – as a little side note, this is not the time to realise you don’t have enough cutlery to host six people for the time of six courses. Also, in a little cleaning spree the week before I had gotten rid of the deep fryer. Clever.

The next course, crispy rolls (filo pastry with beef, orzo and sweetcorn, fajita spice), served with creamy guacamole, a colourful salad with a spicy dressing and a goats cheese praline, with chilli, lime and coriander, rolled in taco dust was accompanied by a tiny margarita, the famous cocktail, but in 4cl shot glasses – all I could hear from the living room was a discussion about having to sip or neck it – sip it please.

The taco rolls were buttered filo pastry, which turned crispy in the oven – I think personally this was my favourite course.

The next course, “Caladan” was a clear tomato consomme, dyed blue with pea flowers, with sea vegetables and a fried scallop – this was the course that was most surprising I think, as the tomato consomme tasted like tomato and the whole dish looked like the sea – I served the consomme on the side, so the guests could pour their own broth into their clear bowls ; absolutely loved the experience. If you’d like to see a video of the pouring, please head over to my instagram @janajarrettnutrition

“Silence of the Lambs” was the main course, a grilled lamb loin with smooth celeriac puree, fennel jam and roasted heritage carrots with a sesame and honey crust. According to some of the guests, the lamb jus was the star of the show – I love drowning my meals in gravy, so I totally get that.

The “Beauty and the Beast” course was a rose & red pepper corn gin, rose ice cubes, rose granita and a raspberry rose, filled up with slimline tonic by fevertree.

The rose granita was a rose and tonic syrup, frozen and then put into a blender, with the consistency of a slushy.

The drink gave me the time to sit down and actually have a little chat with everyone, as I was busy in the kitchen all evening. The guests were my husband and some of our closest and dearest friends, so I was happy to hear they were enjoying themselves and the food. Even though some items they hadn’t eaten before, they were so happy to find out, that they actually loved them.

When I prepped the dessert during the day, I already knew it would be amazing – I sprayed salted caramel cake pops golden and glued some little golden wings on them with white chocolate. Originally I wanted to serve an ice cream with it, but I’ve chosen to replace it with a mild panna cotta with popcorn and vanilla flavour. “A little bit of magic” was actually popping candy, which brought back lovely childhood memories for everyone.

Harry Potter was a huge thing for everyone around the world and I’m so glad I did it justice with a dessert that everyone adored. I definitely want to do another dinner party soon – so if you are up for it, let me know!

It was a fabulous dinner party – all guest were happy and the kitchen was clean in no time – because everything was prepped the day before, nothing could go wrong and everything was nice and relaxed, even for me as the chef. If you do fancy booking me for a dinner party, please don’t hesitate to contact me via email or my instagram.