We Love Cooking!:
twinnerparty

After yesterdays quick dip in aid of pancake day, I'm back with another Chinese recipe today! Were doing a bit of filming this week, so the blog is kind of on auto pilot, but I hope you haven't noticed. Just a quick reminder that the plans for the next twitter dinner are well underway so I would love to hear your suggestions for the menu- leave a comment below with your ideas! :)

Ginger and Garlic Braised Bok Choy
I absolutely love Bok Choy, and although a completely foreign vegetable, it takes extremely well to growing in my vegetable garden! There are so many ways to make the best of this great vegetable, and for me, more often than not, it ends up as a regular ingredient to a quick and tasty stir fry, with lots of other fresh veggies. This braised Bok Choy recipe is a fantastic way to enjoy it, making it a perfect side dish to any main Chinese meal.

Serves 2
4 bok choy, sliced in quarters
1 tablespoon of sunflower oil
1 clove of garlic, sliced thinly
A thumb sized piece of ginger, sliced thinly
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 teaspoons of sesame oil
1 teaspoon of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce

Heat a wok over a high heat, add the oil to coat. Add the garlic and ginger and stir fry for 30 seconds.
Add the bok choy and stir fry for 1 minute. Sprinkle over the sugar, and pour in 60ml of water, toss everything to combine.
Bring the wok to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer covered for 3 minutes or until the bok choy is tender.
Finally add the sesame oil and oyster sauce, stir it through until everything is coated and serve straight away.

Follow all the folks taking part in the world's first Twitter dinner party over here. Everyone has been busy cooking all day today and now we will all be enjoying these delicious dishes:

I have put together the shopping list for tomorrow's Twinnerparty which you can see below, I haven't included the following as I felt most people might have these in their storecupboard but if not make sure to pick up:

- Dijon mustard
- Olive Oil
- Balsamic Vinegar
- Sea Salt
- Ground Black Pepper
- Honey

Here's the shopping list! Remember if you have any questions I am on Twitter here, or leave a comment below.

Last Twinnerparty recipe today! Hope you are all set for tomorrow night, I will write a few tips later on to save time, like the things you can make ahead and so on. A huge thank you to Julian from Bubble Brothers who has posted his suggestions for wines to go with the full meal, so if you are into your wines, head over there to see which wine goes with what! Kick off time for the twinnerparty is 7pm, with an aim to serve the first course at 7.30pm, but as we are all mostly from Ireland, timing of things normally goes out the window, but sure we'll see!

Beetroot, Goats Cheese, Pine Nut and Rocket Salad

This is a really tasty starter dish which is perfect for preparing the ingredients ahead of time and simply assembling them at the last minute to create a pretty impressive salad. If you don't want to roast the beetroot yourself, you can by precooked vac packed ones in the supermarket.

Serves 6
6 medium sized beetroot
75g pine nuts
250g goats cheese, cut into bitesize pieces
60g rocket leaves
3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
Half a clove of garlic, minced
A good pinch of sea salt and ground black pepper

You can cook the beetroot ahead of time if you wish, simply wrap them in tinfoil, place on an oven tray and bake for about an hour at 190C/Gas Mark 5 or until you can insert a fork smoothly. Remove from the oven, allow to cool, then peel with knife and slice into quarters.
On a large frying pan, over a medium heat, toast the pine nuts, until golden brown, make sure to keep an eye on them as they can burn quite easily.
In a large bowl whisk together the Dijon mustard, oil, vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper and set aside.
When you are ready to serve the salad, arrange the beetroot quarters and goats cheese pieces on each plate. Toss the rocket leaves in the dressing and place a little on each plate. Finally scatter each plate with the toasted pine nuts and serve straight away!

I had planned to post both the chicken recipe and the roast beetroot starter but the terrible weather means low light conditions which in turn means terrible photos, so I will be shooting the starter recipe for the twinnerparty tomorrow morning and posting it before 12!

Yesterday both Market Kitchen and Nationwide aired and although I wasn't nervous doing them, having sit through them was another story! But thankfully it went quite well and everyone I have spoken too has been only complimentary, so I am relieved. I don't think you can see Market Kitchen online but the Nationwide interview can be seen here and here.

Herby Roast Chicken and Honey and Thyme Parsnips

Normally I make this herb paste for a full roast chicken, but I find pre-portioned chicken legs and thighs are perfect for entertaining as you don't have to fuss around with carving. The great thing about this dish is that you can prepare the two trays a few hours ahead of your guest arriving and pop them in the oven just before they arrive! If you don't grow your own herbs you can pick up little packets for about €1 in most supermarkets which are really handy for one off dishes. I love roasting whole garlic bulbs but if it's too much garlic for you just leave these out.

Serves 6
6 Chicken legs and thighs
4 red onions, peeled and quartered
2 bulbs of garlic,with the top sliced off
4 cloves of garlic
40g or a large handful of fresh herbs, basil, rosemary, thyme
6 medium sized parsnips, peeled and quartered
A few sprigs of fresh thyme
1 tablespoon of honey
A good drizzle of olive oil
A good pinch of sea salt and ground black pepper

In a pestle and mortar or a food processor, blitz the mixed herbs, garlic cloves, and a little olive oil. Add a little more olive oil until you have a loose paste.
Place the parsnips on a large roasting tray with the thyme, drizzle with honey and oil and spoonful of the herb paste. Toss together until everything is combined.
On another roasting tray arrange the chickens pieces, garlic bulbs and red onion. Add the rest of the herb paste and toss everything together until the the chicken and onions have a nice coating of herbs.
Place both roasting trays in the oven at 190°C/Gas Mark 5, for about 45-50 minutes or until the chicken is cooked right through. The parsnips will cook slightly quicker than the chicken so you may need to take them out of the oven before the chicken.
Serve the chicken straight away, with the parsnips, red onion, garlic and an little drizzle of the juices.

Only a few days left till the world's first twinnerparty! Very exciting stuff, I'm really thrilled people are getting behind the idea and big thank you to everyone who has blogged and retweeted about it! I've had the idea so long ago now that I just felt it was easier to start it small and allow the event to grow naturally rather than organising a massive event telling everyone about it and then it not actually working! The next twinnerparty is already in works for a date in early march so if you can't do this Saturday night, don't worry there will be more! If you haven't planned your twinnerparty just yet, don't worry there is lots of time left to invite some pals over, and hopefully as the recipes are posted they may entice you to get your skates on even more.

Today I'm posting the recipe from Saturdays menu that I am most excited about first! I have a theory on impressive desserts for dinner parties, and it goes like this, if your going to make a dessert, make it a mega dessert, a big balls out sugary treat that could tear the head off, even the pickiest of guests! This Crunchie Sticky Banoffee Pie, folks, I think, does just that! :)

Crunchie Sticky Banoffee Pie

What can make a naughty pie even naughtier? The answer... CRUNCHIE BARS! If you don't live in Ireland or England, Crunchie bars are honeycomb bars covered in chocolate and are extremely delicious! But my favourite part of making this pie has to be the nervous and exciting moment of opening the tin of condensed milk after it's been boiled for 2 hours to see if it's perfectly caramelised, and then squidging the tin so that the content blubs out over the edge! Those words are probably not even in the dictionary but I feel they best describe the tin of gooey caramel perfectly!

Serves 6
297g can condensed milk
230g digestive biscuits, about 16 crushed finely
115g butter, melted
3 bananas
250ml of cream
3 crunchie bars, roughly chopped

In a small high sided pot, cover the tin and boil the unopened can of condensed milk for 2 hours, keep an eye on it making sure the water level is always above the top of the can.
While the can is boiling, prepare the base of the pie.
Mix together the crushed digestive biscuits with the melted butter until they are combined and then spread the mixture evenly over the base of a 18cm cake tin with a removable base.
Cover and chill for 2 hours in the fridge.
When the can has finished boiling remove from the water and allow to cool. When the can is cool to the touch, open and spread the caramelised condensed milk over the biscuit base.
Slice the bananas evenly and arrange over the caramel.
Whip the cream until it is just about stiff and spread on top of the bananas.
Sprinkle the crunchie bar over the top of the cream as artistically as you feel necessary!
Cover and refrigerate until you are ready to serve.

So I thought I would keep things fairly simple for the first twinnerparty menu, nothing too extravagant but still jam packed with great flavours and tastes. I will be posting the recipes in the next few days so you can familiarise yourselves with them and then on Friday I will post a handy little shopping list to make things even easier. The important thing to remember is not to fuss over this, the whole idea of the twinnerparty is to get you into the kitchen cooking and serving up some tasty dishes for friends or family. If you don't want to follow the recipes exactly, if you don't have exactly 6 guests coming, if your friends don't twitter, don't worry! Just enjoy the whole thing and if it all goes to pieces it makes for all the more entertaining tweets! Not that it will of course, I have faith in you! Don't forget I'm on twitter@donalskehan, so if there is any problems with the menu, recipes, shopping lists, or cooking I will do my best to tweet you back asap!

So without further ado, here it is the world's first twinnerparty menu!

Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to present to you, the world's first...

Twinnerparty!

What, I hear you ask is a twinnerparty, well put simply, it is a dinner party via social network, twitter. The aim is to get people connecting via the magic of the social networking through cooking and eating together. It also gives people who haven't cooked for guests before, the support and advice of others who have! A big supportive cooking community so to speak!
The idea is that everyone who decides to take part shops together, cooks together, and eats together all via the magic of tweeting!
A set 3 course menu for six people will be decided upon and I will post the recipes and a simple shopping list here on the blog before the big day.

What you have to do!
- Invite 5 guests to eat your dishes, preferably ones who tweet!
- Tweet while you shop!
- Tweet while you cook!
- Tweet photos of your finished dishes if you can!

The first event will take place next Saturday the 23rd of January and everyone is invited!
I will post the set dinner menu next week with recipes and a shopping list. Throughout the big day I will be on hand to help with any cooking emergencies that may arise and to offer advice if it's needed!
Tweet me to let me know if you want to take part or leave a comment below! Looking forward to tweating with you! ;)