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Divinely decadent dinner on a hot autumn night

October 2, 2011 7 Comments Filed Under: Food, Recipes, Uncategorized

When I planned this dinner, the first of my ‘Diva’ series, I imagined an autumnal menu, a slight chill in the air, closed doors, maybe even a lit fire. Instead, I spent yesterday toiling through the heat, dripping limply through my prep in an airless kitchen where the oven is an Aga that you can’t turn off. At about three pm I was so overcome with tiredness, I laid briefly on my bed in the only cool room of the house, to relieve my heat swollen ankles. An hour later I was awoken by the sound of my own snoring.
Indian summers are no fun when you are in the kitchen. The limitations of a home restaurant becomes evident, not enough fridges, the icing on the biscuits dried too quickly then melted, and everything in general wilted including me.

Red or white prosecco served in babycham glasses, palmiers, olives
Heritage tomatoes, oak smoked tomatoes, goat’s cheese curds and guacamole salad
Spaghetti vongole in a silver bag (recipe in my book, one guest told me it was the best she’d ever had and she works with top chefs!)
Cheese and Biscuits
Rosemary chocolate fondant with Ruby shoe biscuits

 David Gest made an appearance.

 A trio of Dorothys.

 Marilyn came too!

Rosemary chocolate pot with ruby heel

How to make ruby shoe biscuits
100g of unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
275g plain flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
Icing:
400g icing sugar
3-4 tbsp of water
As much red food colouring as you need to give a deep colour.
A pot of red edible glitter.
Line a baking tray with a silpat.
Cream the butter and sugar together.
Beat in the egg and vanilla.
Stir in the flour until it comes together as a dough.
Roll out the dough on a floured surface to a thickness of 1cm.
Using your shoe shaped cutter, cut out as many as you can.
Save the scraps to make into a ball and repeat.
Bake the viscuits for 8-10 minutes.
Leave to harden for 5 minutes, then cool on a rack.
Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and gradually add the water.
Add the food colouring.
Put some of the icing in one piping bag, enough for doing the lines around the edges. This icing should be slightly firmer in texture.
Having snipped off a teeny bit of the end of the piping bag, use the stiffer icing to pipe precisely around the edges of your shoe shape, within a millimeter of the edge.
Have another icing bag with slightly more water for the filling in or flooding of the shoe. You need to cut a little more off the end for a bigger hole in the piping bag.
Fill in, wriggling the icing down the middle of the shoe.
Using a butter knife dipped in water (not too much) spread the icing until it covers the inside of the shoe.
Add the glitter while the icing is still wet by dipping a dry pastry brush into the pot and flicking the brush over the shoe with your finger. You want an even layer of glitter.
Let the biscuits dry for 24 hours in a cool place.

Further ‘Diva Dinners’:
November 18th: Barbra Streisand dinner: friday night sabbath. http://www.wegottickets.com/event/132662
December 18th: Edith Piaf lunch with accordionist.
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/132665
In January there will be a Dolly Parton dinner.
February: Stevie Nicks!
Dates up soon.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Miss Whiplash

    October 2, 2011 at 11:08 pm

    Looking good.
    I also have the KG ruby slippers from the pic – I love them – they're almost my favourite shoes 🙂

    Reply
  2. Michelle

    October 2, 2011 at 11:46 pm

    You could use royal icing for decorating biscuits – I've never seen it melt and it is easier to work with, holds its shape better. We should decorate with icing together soon.

    Reply
  3. Olive

    October 3, 2011 at 5:48 am

    Ah yes, the crazy limitations of the home kitchen! But your menu, and your cookies look divine.

    Reply
  4. theundergroundrestaurant

    October 3, 2011 at 7:43 am

    Every girl should have a pair of red shoes.
    And a red coat.
    Michelle: you are on!
    Thanks Olive…

    Reply
  5. Evie Gold

    October 3, 2011 at 12:13 pm

    Sweetie, the red heel choco pots look divine!

    Reply
  6. James

    October 3, 2011 at 1:35 pm

    Ruby shoes amazing – have to try something like that. Good for a hen party.

    Answer to heat = cook through the night instead. It was nice and cool between midnight and about 7am – didn't get stopped by phonecalls or emails either – did those in the daytime instead, much more efficient. Portable air conditioning unit helps too.

    Reply
  7. theundergroundrestaurant

    October 3, 2011 at 2:05 pm

    Fuck yeah james.
    Are you coming to the underground farmers market?

    Reply

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MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

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Kerstin Rodgers/MsMarmiteLover
Apple rose blossom tarts with rose jam. Rose Appl Apple rose blossom tarts with rose jam.  Rose Apple Blossom Tarts

Serves 8

Equipment: 
Microwave
Cupcake or muffin tin

I use a red-skinned apple to make these, to get a hint of blush at the edges of the ‘petals’.

Ingredients:
4 Pink Lady or Royal Gala apples, cored, cut into quarters, sliced thinly into half moons
1 lemon, squeezed
1 pack all butter readymade puff pastry 320g, on a roll, cut into 8 strips about 6 cms long
100g of melted butter
1/2 jar of rose jam
1 or 2 tbsp cinnamon or cardamom, ground 
Pinch maldon salt
2 or 3 tbsp icing sugar

Instructions

Prepare a bowl of acidulated water (cold water with lemon juice) to prevent browning.
Core the apples, and cut them in quarters. Slice thinly into half-moons (a mandolin is useful for this). 
Put them into a large bowl of cold water with the lemon.
Microwave the bowl of sliced apples for 5 minutes until soft enough to bend slightly but not cook them.
Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
Roll out the puff pastry. Divide into 8 sections by cutting the roll into quarters then halving each quarter. You will end up with 8 approximately 6cm strips.
Brush the strip with melted butter then paint with a layer of rose jam. You can then dust with either ground cinnamon or cardamom.
Lay the apple slices along the top of the pastry strip, overlapping them. Fold up the bottom half of the pastry strip to make an pleat with the skin side of the apple half moon poking over the top.
Roll up the folded pastry strips until they look like a rose made of apple at the top
Place ‘rose’ side up, in a buttered cupcake tin
Repeat until all are done and bake for 20 -30 minutes.
Using a tea strainer or small sieve, sprinkle with icing sugar.
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