A rather sophisticated Peruvian evening at Charlotte's house

Kicking off the evening with pisco sours and a ceviche salad (who knew you could cook fish with fruit?) Charlotte had already raised a high bar.

Lamb for main course with an authentic Peruvian drink (apparently more popular than Coca Cola - we had to give it a try).

The colour was somewhat terrifying but it tasted pretty good!Next up was dessert. Best cheesecake ever. Mental note, always bake your cheesecakes... yum yum.

Team 3, Dinner no2 Video - Cor Blimey Mate at Kortlangs - Xcert.

Hickmania

Kerplunk time!!

The all important fool proof instructions

how to make friends and alienate people

First - pick a venue - but not just any venue.
Your house. Your stately house in the middle of snowy London.
Get doors to open automatically upon arrival.
Get your butler/concierge to greet you and point you into the right direction.
Make people feel special.
Very special. Just not in a 'special needs' way.

Basically make me go - "where is this place?"
Sasha go - "maybe here"
Me - "no way anyone lives in this house!"
Then walk around for 5min, freeze all bollocks and call Chris to check on the venue.
Yeah, way.

Basically, Chris is the Major of Rosebery Avenue.
Trust me, I know what I'm talking about.
Check out the photos (the first one is Google search picture. see what I'm talking about! I think art buying is totally overpayed.)
This is the door and what/who we found right behind that impressive door (or rather - doors).
After we got meeted and greeted (yes, I know my grammer - but I like the sound of 'meeted') by Chris's butler - we were summouned in the living room and introduced to snacks - deep fried rice balls and Russian mules.
Then there were starters.
And the main course!
(note: Isabelle is not frowning. This is her talking face. She's a serious person who tells seriosu stories. This is her telling one of those seriosu stories. Did you know she's been on two blind dates? Both had ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with online dating.)

We also had lovely desserts - chocolate brownies with strawberry sauce and the most amazing dessert wine (check Chris's menu for the name!)
(note: yes, Sasha is licking his plate. I think he might have even had second helpings.)
But all that did not satisfy Sasha's appetite as he just had to have extra desserts in the form of 20p candy (yes, if you go to Chris's mantion house - you have to pay for candy.)
It was all a laugh and a half. We drank, we talked, we laughed.
Then we were escorted out.
Thanks, Major Chris!

sincerely yours,
Oksana

Chris McGuigan's menu

Moroccan dinner by Lithuanian woman

I was just passing her house, honestly, but somehow ended up staying for the entire evening. You would have too. The food was lovely, the company was fab. Images of the dessert below. Yummy!

Notice the kaftan+turban outfit, too.

dinner night at Oksy's

I cooked the night before.
I cooked the entire day of the dinner.
I even cooked a little bit during the dinner.
It was a cookatron like no other.

But that's what it takes to make happy food.
Slow cooked food.
It's warming and it's melting and it's of the sort where you want to try every single thing twice... or at least, I hoped that that's what it would all be like.
It was a warm and fun night.

In fact, it was so warming that Karin decided to crash it!
Ha, but then I did cook enough food to feed a small army...

So, first up, the guests!
(I'd normally would start with description of the place, but it's not a grand hall or 1.1m pad... Toby has kindly described it as a gehtto - you ring a bell and it all looks slightly ify, you walk through main door and it still looks ify. Then you climb and you climb to the very top of the ify looking building and arrive at my den. "A tree house" according to Toby. I've lived there for quite a while - it's full of stuff - books, films, shoes and cables. I'm a hermit of sorts. I do not share it with anyone other than my intrusive mother, who stays with me two nights a week. Don't get me wrong, I love her to bits. Just not on the nights she stays with me. I regress to the five year old self behaviour on said nights. And as you all know, I'm mature, compasionate and completely in control of things the rest of the time.)

Meet the lovely Isabelle, Sasha, Karin, Brad (Luq's replacement for the night) and Chris.


This is the process of making the starters.


The actual starters (two versions of each - with and without citrus - humous, baba ganoush, tabouleh, stuffeddvine leaves with yogurt and a selection of picles) on table with Hendricks G&T with cucumber.


This was all followed by lamb tagine in red wine sauce with pomegranate couscous and fenel and pomegranate salad. And plenty of vino, of course.


Then we moved on to a dessert - fresh berry tartlets and mini pistachio meringues. Served with pomegranate and lychee cocktails.


If you want to hire me as your personal dinner chef, come and talk to me in person.