Retro night
Well it was a week ago now, but our little retro session went very well. For our starter, Jenny made her crazy cucumber crocodile – must get her to send a pic. Having abandoned thoughts of an entire meal from the Hamlyn All Colour Cookbook from the actual ’70s, on the grounds that we didn’t want an entire comedy meal, we had Vincent Price’s poularde au papillote from the very wonderful Treasury of Great Recipes. None of us could finish our giant chicken pieces, so lots of leftovers for Sunday. The sauce was rich and tasty – shallots, mushrooms, tarragon, ham, wine – awesome! At Missy B’s request, that was served with good old fashioned dauphinoise potatoes. With a non-retro salad-of-whatever-is-in-the-fridge, which is a bit of a signature dish these days.
Missy B was in the driving seat for the dessert – she made gorgeous strawberry shortcakes, with clotted cream, as recommended by Dan Lepard. I couldn’t totally relinquish control though, so I made some cute little strawberry mousses, inspired by (but not really replicating) a mousse I had at The New Pilot in Penarth recently.
And then we settled in for a viewing of an early Columbo episode. Jenny fell asleep early on, but Missy B was hooked from the beginning. A triumph of parenting!
