party party

After gyrating in a Jessie J fashion the night before, it took a serious amount of willpower to wake up the next morning energised and ready to prepare food for a group of friends coming over that evening. I had promised home made burgers. Why did I promise? Promise is a big word and one that you can't get out of, even on a hangover. Nonetheless I did promise, so...wake up at 10am and yes oh yes, start with a trip to the tip! That's what good time girls like to get up to on a Saturday morning...and swiftly moved onto the supermarket, narrowly avoiding a car parking ticket. This is a penny saving partaaaay and is incredibly cheap and easy to prepare. In fact the money mostly goes towards the drinks (but you can get your guests to bring that!). So with this blasting out on the tv...

...the sun blazing and Charlie Sheen's mantra running in my head I only had 'one speed, one gear. GO!'

Home made burgers

The burgers are easy. I used 3 x 500g packs of beef mince, and you literally just use a fork and mash it up with lots of chopped spring onion, chopped coriander, chopped mint, ground cumin, smoked paprika, salt and pepper and more mixed chilli/onion spice. 2 egg yolks to bind it all together and then roll into balls of your desired shape. Nothing else involved. You can use anything you like and put it in there, whatever flavour you want. I left them chilling in the fridge, ready to cook later.

Take them out when you're ready to eat and cook both sides in a frying pan until rare, medium rare or well done.

Roast potato and sweet potato

These would have been more like chips if I had divided into two pans. I rather overcrowded them so they came out a little more roasted style. Chop up potato and sweet potato and lightly coat them in a bit of oil, salt, pepper, smoked paprika and cumin. Let them marinade until roasting. They took about 40 mins in the oven.

more after the jump...

I had a vegetarian guest in the mix, so instead of panicking, I improvised with what I had, and what I had was a useful raw sheet of puff pastry dough. The kind you buy already rolled and ready to use and usually found in the fridge/dairy section. So easy if you don't want to get out a rolling pin. I had some onions, so I sweated them out in a pan, afterwards adding a tiny tiny bit of balsamic vinegar. Then I added some chopped cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, garlic and masses of chopped coriander and mint. I used the same flavouring/spices as the burgers.

I then used about 1 tablespoon of cream cheese that I had left in the fridge to bind it all together.

Then I laid out the pastry into a dish and put the mixture into the middle, leaving enough room at the sides so the pastry could puff up. I then crumbled feta onto the top and popped in the oven for about 20 minutes, or at least until the pastry was golden.The extra special bit is that the pastry goes all gooey underneath from all the moisture.

I served this all with a big green leafed, coriander and mint salad with chopped tomatoes and toasted pine nuts. I also put two large brown seeded loafs in the oven to have on the side.

Espresso cookies
These I cannot credit. They were ALL made by my flatmate. Absolutely delicious. Not too sweet. Strong but light espresso taste and can be made as squidgy or as crunchy as you like. We like them squidgy! Also instead of course espresso powder, Fran used  very ground espresso powder. The full recipe can be found at Joy the Baker blog.

More drink and more dancing followed and not an empty stomach in sight!