Yes! The festive season is upon us and that usually means too many parties and functions to attend and not enough hours in the day to get everything done before the 25th ticks around. Last week we attended our clinical work function for The Podiatry Practice, which kicked off with a bang or should I say pop at Ele’s fabulous new apartment. With 360 degree views of the city and beyond we couldn’t have asked for a better place to drink the first of many bubbled beverages…
And while on the topic of bubbled beverages, it’s always handy to have a bottle or two on hand for the unexpected guest and even better to have a quick cocktail up your sleeve. I like to invest in a couple of boxes of candied swizzle sticks which look really pretty in the glass. The ones pictured at the start of the post look like sugared xmas trees but there is a huge variety of coloured and shaped sticks suitable for any function. And what’s more, there is nothing difficult about plunking one into a glass of champagne. Our function continued on at The Stokehouse. With starters of oysters and black sesame prawn tacos everyone was happy. The standout though was the smoked eel pate. Now I don’t have the exact recipe, but this one is probably fairly close and is actually a really quick starter or possibly the star on your Xmas platter.
Smoked Eel Remoulade
Ingredients:
Freshly squeezed juice of ½ lemon
50g celeriac or fennel chopped in fine chopsticks
1 heaped teaspoon of dijon mustard
2 tablespoon of good quality mayonnaise(use an egg mayonnaise)
1 shallot(that’s a french one not a shallot!) finely diced
1 teaspoon of horseradish sauce
100g of smoked eel shredded finely. Make sure the bones are all removed.
Good quality rye bread, crostini or cracker of your choice
Capers and fennel leaves for garnish
Method:
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and taste. The consistency should be fairly creamy and easy to spread on your cracker. If it is too stiff add a little more mayonnaise. Season if needed and use the capers and fennel leaves for garnish.
And of the shoes? This month we are going featuring on Instagram our #alliwantforchristmas tag with all things fabulous for the foot. We have already posted this one but all I can say is I need these shoes for Xmas! Hope you are reading this Antoine!
We hope you are enjoying the festive season so far and stay tuned for our upcoming Youtube and blog posts.
Until next time,
E&E
