A Nopi Nosh Night to Get Started

Mise en place for the Strawberry and Rose Mess

So, we have lift off. Do I start with one simple dish? Two? Heck no, let's invite people around and try six dishes. In the best food blogger tradition, I should take pictures of every step but with my photographic skills (not to mention the lack of a good camera) and attention span, that probably isn't going to happen. But here we go!

First step is to get the strawberry sorbet for the Strawberry and Rose Mess (Pg 284) into the freezer. And already we hit an incy-wincy problemetto and my first deviation from the recipe. No glucose. Do I really need glucose?  We'll see. I made a simple syrup instead, blitzed the strawberries and sugars and then realised I should have warmed it on a low heat first before blending. This isn't off to a good start. And with no ice-cream maker, I just bunged into a pan and placed it in the freezer with hopes of remembering to stir it occasionally. (This actually happened). The fragrance was divine!

Mise-en-place for the Ginger and Coriander Martini

Next step was to prepare the cocktails for fuss-free serving later. Coriander and Ginger Martini (Pg 292)  Firstly, I prepare the ginger syrup by blitzing ginger, water and sugar in the blender. Easy, and the ginger syrup leftovers will keep in fridge or freezer. Yay.

Toasting the coriander seeds was easy too and I can juice a lime too! All that remained was to assemble glasses, cocktail shaker and Vodka (Use what you have right?) and wait till serving time. Onto the food prep...

Mise-en-place for the Almond Tarator prep

The main dish was to be Baby Squid with Almond Tarator and Lime Relish (Pg 39) which is in the Starters section of the book. Not a baby squid was to be had so I substituted baby octopus. we'll see! Sourdough bread was ripped from its crust and set to soak in milk (not the full-fat specified in the recipe but I wonder what difference that would make) and the garlic set to roast in the oven with olive oil and salt. Then to prepare the spice blend. My tamarind paste had dried up and was unusable and I used cumin powder because I didn't have seeds but other than that, I followed the recipe and that was set aside till it was time to cook the octopus. Maybe it wasn't as fine a paste as they do at Nopi but I'm sure the flavour will be similar.

When the garlic was roasted, the bread, garlic, almonds, sherry and olive oile are blended to make the Tarator. New word for me and sounds vastly more appealing than Bread Sauce.

mise-en-place for the Freekah and Bean Salad

As suggested in the comments section(!) I should of course focus on seasonal ingredients and what could be fresher than the edamame and zucchini straight from my friend Lyndie's vege patch?

On to the French Beans with Freekah and Miso (Pg 56)  First step was to soak the freekah, saute onion, garlic and celery and then add the soaked frekkah, stock to the pan and set to simmer.

Then I had to prepare the greens; cook and shell the edamame, blanch the beans and prepare the miso dressing. I had obviously bought the wrong sort of shallots (why oh why are all these onions called different things in different places?) so I used what I had (eschallots?) and set to roast in the oven. I didn't add the mushrooms at all. And I didn't have tarragon leaves. Or sake. Or an orange for the dressing. So much for following a recipe!

The finished result doesn't look as tempting as in the book - I should have put the greens on top of the freekah - but it tasted very nice and packed with nutrition. And really, except for the roasting of the onion and mushroom, which let's face it, I didn't actually do, it was quite easy to prepare.