Today's harvest

Notes from our Chinese Banquet

The lateness of this blog entry is testament to what a fun night we all had back in early May - I think we've only just recovered from the festivities!

Preparations for our Chinese banquet began - literally - weeks in advance, with a 'trial' feast at one of our homes. Lucky friends who got to partake in a day of assembling haggis wonton, vegetable spring rolls, various other dim sum and of course homemade crispy duck. Who would have thought there were culinary uses for bike pumps, desk fans and coat hangers...

The day itself was a frenzy of activity, prepping all the veg and sauces (a personal fave was the sweet chilli dipping sauce), and making homemade noodles. Thank goodness for the Kenwood pasta rolling attachment!

We knew this would be a slightly frantic evening - having tasked ourselves with eight different dishes to serve up. That's where all of the advance prep came in handy, you see.

As guests arrived, we served up a selection of tasty dim sum - including the aforementioned wonton, spring rolls, and marbled tea eggs. 

Moving into the dining room, we served up a delicious fresh tomato and eggflower soup - quite simply fresh tomatoes, a flavoursome chicken stock and whisked egg stirred through at the last minute.

To follow, the piece de la resistance (or so we thought till another couple of fantastic dishes were served up): the Peking Duck. That bit about the bike pump, desk fan and coat hanger...? Well, all that effort paid off, as did the blood, sweat and tears spent making approximately 40 Chinese pancakes the night before. 

On to the next course - a jasmine tea sorbet to cleanse the palate - before we moved onto the next round! Served fresh from the wok and as they were ready (in typical Chinese banquet style), we feasted on bean sauce noodles with pork (the next mindblower), sweet and sour prawns (not a bit of MSG in sight) and crispy chicken dumplings, all accompanied by stir fried greens with a home made hoisin sauce. Whilst we knew that the food was going down well, even the cooks struggled to concentrate on prepping the final course as we gobbled up the leftover pork noodles. 

We closed with an Asian themed dessert - kumquat fondants with lychee icecream. Pleasingly crisp on the outside puddings, with an oozing centre of whisky flavoured kumquat marmalade.

To top off an already superlative evening, we were treated to our very own jazz performance from one of our guests, Edinburgh's @queen_of_tarts, who as well as hosting her very own high teas, can sing for her supper!