mid winter dinner party

When Mum and Dad were here last week we had friends over for dinner. It was a week night so I did a roast of sirloin which is always nice and easy to prepare and cook. I rubbed it with a mix of horseradish and balsamic before roasting for about 50 minutes.

I served it with cous cous and green beans. A lot of people find cous cous bland, but if you dress it up right, it is delicious. I added cubes of roasted pumpkin to mine as well toasted, slivered almonds. I also added a teaspoon of cinnamon, lots of lemon zest and juice and a drizzle of good olive oil. I always season cous cous well – it can take quite a lot of salt (I always use sea salt).

For pudding we had individual golden syrup and raspberry steamed puddings. The recipe comes from Dish magazine. These puddings are lovely and light. They have the juice and zest of a lime which gives a zingy contrast to the sweetness of the golden syrup. The raspberries add a little interest, but unfortunately mine turned a dark colour so didn’t have the vivid red of raspberries as a contrast. I also forgot to fold the extra raspberries into the pudding batter, but they still tasted good. Having your own little pudding is a great thing at a dinner party – it means know worries in cutting up a pudding evenly and does look like you have gone to a little more effort, whether or not that is true! And, golden syrup steamed pudding is a real old fashioned favourite that just about everyone enjoys!!

Steamed Golden Syrup and Raspberry Puddings (from Dish magazine)

100g butter
100g sugar
2 eggs
zest and juice of 1 lime
1/3 c plain yoghurt
1 tsp vanilla
175g self raising flour
3 c frozen raspberries
6 tbsp golden syrup

· Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time
· Stir in lime zest and juice, yoghurt and vanilla
· Gently fold in the dry ingredients and 2 cups of raspberries.
· Spoon 1 tbsp golden syrup into each of 6 greased ramekins. Top with a few of the remaining raspberries and then divide batter between ramekins
· Place greased foil over the top of each ramekin, place in a roasting dish and fill with enough boiling water to come half way up the sides of the ramekins
· Bake at 200c for 25-35 minutes until firm
To serve, run a knife around each pudding and up-end onto a serving plate