Book Group Dinner - Angelsey Eggs

There was a slight slip in my plan for 2012 to record all the dinners - I forgot to photograph the January dish (epic fail, month one!)   However, we liked the dish so much, that I made it again the other night just for me and hubby so I photographed that one instead.  Call it cheating if you will, but at least we have something to show on the first of these posts rather than lost of text and little else....

As our egg hater wasn't coming to January's group, it seemed the perfect opportunity to make a dish I'd been wanting to make ever since I saw it on the Hairy Bikers' Food Tour of Great Britain about 3 years ago - Angelsey Eggs.  However, as my hubby doesn't do cheese it wasn't a dish I could make for him so it had to wait for cheese and egg loving friends.  I do adapt dishes for him without cheese but it seemed a waste on this one, especially for a first outing, and I wanted to try it "properly" first.

I took the recipe from the book that went with the series, but it is currently on the BBC site with it being a BBC show too and you can find it here in full if you want it  http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/angleseyeggs_92117 but essentially it is mash potato with leeks in, with a layer of hard boiled eggs, covered with cheese sauce which is then topped with a mixture of cheese and breadcrumbs.  It's a proper rib sticking winter warmer so was perfect for the recent chilly weather.

I made a couple of adaptions to the bikers recipe - I softened my leeks in butter rather than boiled them and for speed (it was a school night after all) I cheated with a jar of supermarket 4 cheese pasta sauce mixed with cream for my cheese sauce (the cream was to help hubby get over the cheese factor), and whilst not authentic, it worked fine for me.  I did use Caerphilly along with cheddar in my topping though and am glad I did as I'd never had it before and it as, as it turns out, a rather marvellous cheese!

Here's my second cooking of it in pictures:

Leek and potato layer (this time using up leftovers from Sunday lunch - perfect Monday night quick dinner dish):

A layer of lovely free-range golden goodness:

A rich and creamy cheesy blanket (again cheats sauce and cream to make it not too strong for my hubby)

For book group I made a full on cheese version for us girls and a separate one for the hubby sans cheese.  This time we were sharing so I made the sauce weaker, and then added parsley to his "purely breadcrumb" topping to distinguish it for the cheesy side which was all mine!

Here's the golden baked version in all its glory.

Served with pork chops and broccoli - delicious and total comfort food.  Will certainly be a regular winter visitor at our table from now on.

Book Group Dinner History

One of the things I've been meaning to do for ages, is to start cataloguing the food I cook so that when I cook something new and interesting I remember it, and can perhaps do it again and make it better rather than merely staring at DH and saying what was that thing I cooked that you really liked and getting the "which one" look in return!

As part of this process I am determined to record the meal I cook each month for what we laughably call at book group at my house each month.  Yes we pick a book each month and yes C & L pretty much read all of them, L2 reads most of them and me and S read them if we can be bothered when we have time, but really it's just an excuse to get together and eat food!  The way it works is that all the girls chuck in a fiver and I rustle up something for them.  We all met on a business course nearly 6 years ago and have been meeting at mine once a month ever since - there was talk of taking it in turns, but I like to cook, they like to be fed so keeping it at mine works all round.  What has happened though, in the most part, that except for special requests and our annual turkey dinner at Christmas (and yes, I cook a turkey AND all the trimmings, on a week night, after a full day at work and have it on the table by 8.30 pm), I have always given them something different - so that is well over 60 different meals.  Now if only I'd thought to keep a record of them from the beginning........

Well I didn't, cos I didn't blog then, I don't even think I'd heard of the concept of it back in 2006/2007, but we did start to discuss how they couldn't believe I kept coming up with new dishes all the time sometime around the middle of 2009, and thanks to great memories and the help of a few emails we managed to get a list together, which I am going to store here for historical purposes and then from now on will do a proper monthly post to record the meal and even the odd photo if I remember to have the camera to hand before the talking and eating begins and we all get carried away.....

So here's the historical headlines:

2011

January	Chicken & ham / Mackerel, leek and fennel pies with potatoes and braised cabbage.
February	Vegetarian meatball tagine (meatballs hybrid of falafel and spinach and cheese balls)
March	Ham & leek /Squash and leek cannelloni with garlic bread and salad.
April	Asparagus quiche with deconstructed Greek salad (so fussy eaters can pick what they like again!)
May	Summer minestrone.  Rosemary salted caramel millionaires shortbread for dessert.
June	No meeting.
July	Courgette soup (Food Urchin's recipe)  Pan Bagnat.   Lemon buns and/or salted caramel pavlova for dessert (birthday treats)
August	Cauliflower and chickpea curry with Gujarati aubergine fritters and Indian chicken goujons.
September	No meeting
October	Shepperd's pie with rumbledethumps topping (meat and lentil and black bean versions)
November	Squash risotto with crispy bacon topping (mushroom for the veggie)
December	Christmas dinner - turkey and all the trimmings.  Veggie option was "individual" mushroom wellingtons.   Chocolate and salted caramel tart (guest provided)

2010  (one guest turned veggie in Jan 2010, 2 other guests are "fussy with vegetables" - book group dinners become slightly more challenging!!!)

January	No meeting
February	Prawn curry and matter paneer (Hairy Bikers recipe after seeing them live)  non fish eater not present
March	Spinach and feta frittata
April	Chilli and cornbread (both meat and veggie bean chilli made)
May	Asparagus and pea risotto with poached egg/goats cheese for non egg eater who is not the veggie - told you they got more challenging!
June	One of our group returned to Canada so this was her farewell dinner.  Lamb steaks with roast potatoes, cumin roast aubergines and courgette, and pea and broad bean salad.  Veggie option was a mini asparagus quiche with same sides.
July	6 onion quiche, ham wrapped potatoes (plain ones for veggie) and salad.  Coffee toffee cupcakes.
August	"Special" Birthday dinner request to repeat paella - made veggie version for all and had bowls with meat and fish so people could add what they liked and exclude what they didn't!  Chocolate and beetroot birthday cake.
September	Haddock chowder (no bacon) with fresh bread (non fish eater not present)  Cake for dessert.
October	Massaman curry chicken and potato/prawn and potato with bok choi
November	Chicken (bean for veggie) Quisedillas with spicey vegetable soup.
December	Christmas dinner - turkey and all the trimmings.  Veggie option was squash and feta and pine nut filo pie.  Experimental mince pies (with nuts and limited dried fruit for non dried fruit eater!)

2009

January	No meeting
February	Chicken and squash tagine
March	Quiche (variety unknown)
April	Salmon (chicken for non fish eater) on mash with watercress and pea sauce
May	Mezze
June	Tuna and pasta bake
July	Courgette Soup, Courgette bruschetta and St Clements Tart (caramel disaster!)
August	Lamb burgers with onion rings and wedges
September	Paella - mixed meat and seafood
October	Spaghetti and meatballs
November	No meeting
December	Christmas dinner - turkey and all the trimmings.  Chocolate log (guest provided)

Let's see if we can do some proper recipes for 2012 onwards.....