Come Dine with Me has been fast hotting up as we near the finish line but not before the wonderful Nicole had her turn. I have to admit that I was particularly intrigued by Nicole's venture as, other than Hannah I have sampled her food the least and know that cooking is something that she wishes she did a lot more of.
Living with her at this point made it rather difficult for me to avoid what was going on for a couple of days before the dinner with my nosey and Jewish Mother approach, however, somehow a few things slipped under the radar and Nicole completely surprised me on the night.
To kick things off we were plied with alcohol - of course; some sophisticated peach bellinis that went down rather nicely.
Accompanying our fruity fizz were some lovely little puff pastries - goats cheese and caramelised onion and also roasted tomato. I'm a little scared of puff pastry so thought Nicole was very brave to make these and I was really rather impressed. The pastry was golden and crispy. My only niggle was that there should have been a bit more filling in them.
As in true CDWM style we all get to see the menus before the big day. Our starter from Nicole was labelled simply "chicken surprise". Instantly I conjured images of some sort of chicken pie or something sauce related. How wrong I could be and how utterly wonderful my friend is. Nicole and I went to Thailand a year or so ago and got completely obsessed with a minced chicken dish that we ate constantly. It can't be found in any London Thai restaurant (and if it can, its just not the same and a bit minging) so we constantly talk about how we miss it. Since going back to Thailand recently, sneaky little Nicole learnt to make it! I couldn't believe it when the little plate of heaven was put in front of me.
It was stunning. Fresh, zesty, spicy and of course, I just wanted more. Nicole did the dish proud.
After reminiscing about beautiful Thai food and finding out exactly how to make said dish we moved onto the main, roasted sea bass with vegetables. Now most of my friends know that these day I'm very very happy to be given a fish dish but this one was just a little difficult for me to contend with. As its still very rare for me to order cooked fish in a restaurant or indeed cook it I'm hardly au fait with de-boning and the sight of the bulging eyes freaked me out a little. However, the fish was good, well cooked and it went down well with everyone. So far Nicole was winning.
For desserts Nicole is always about chocolate so she went classic old-school and made chocolate mousse. Simple, rich, smooth and chocolatey - almost a perfect palate cleaner. Not a bit was left. Deeelicious.
Once again, another soiree of good food, good wine, good conversation - its all good.
