I have been shamefully slow in the writing up of the May meeting of The Victoria Inn Food Club, and for this, well, lets pretend I have a good excuse and move on.
The May meeting, as determined by the age old fail safe of drawing names from a hat, was fruit, and much like the Chocolate Challenge from April, the results were mouthwatering without exception. Creativity abounded and we all went home as full of vitamin C as we did calories. Some very good healthy options here, and, well and lots of cakey goodness too but let’s not get all tied up in waist watching for this one.
We shall get to it then, summaries below with pictures as thieved from Stuart (thanks Stuart!). Once again full recipes not available at this time but stay tuned for a Christmas Cook Book opportunity for an as yet unconfirmed charity.
Starters
Prawn and mango salad from Amanda. Simple and scrummy, the meaty texture of prawns goes so well with soft mango and rounded off with a sharp dressing and a nice crunch of green leaves. Very good.
Fruit Slabs in Serrano Ham. As if ham and pineapple was ever going to be anything but a winner! Really nice chunky strips of pineapple, melon or mango wrapped up in a little serrano ham parcel from Paula. This is the kind of food that makes diets doable. Really tasty and satisfying and truly saintly in the macros.Green apple and halloumi salad from Ian. This is one of my joint winner dishes of the night. Crunchy green salad with fresh apple wedges went so well with the salty halloumi cheese and a dusting of cinnamon throughout to balance out with a little sweetness. Fabulous.Wraps with hand made turkey goujons and a cranberry sauce. It’s like christmas dinner in a wrap! Well not quite, but it was very good and possibly not a starter but I took one on my first plate so it goes in the first section. Really nice idea and a combination I previously wouldn’t have considered in a wrap/sandwich type affair. I will now! Good work David.
Mains
Pan fried (yes I know you hate the term) mackerel with roasted rhubarb. Yes, rhubarb is technically a vegetable as Tom was keen to point out but as Sheena is our leader and this was soooo good, we will let her off for that. A fantastic and unusual fish dish, just about seasonal at the moment I think and well worth a go at home. Great.My own offering, robbed word for word from Phil Vickery (recipe link at the end of this post). This is a slow-ish cooked pork shoulder dish cooked with lots of plums, soy and worcester sauce. Certainly not sweet and sour this gave really tender meat in a thick, dark and wonderfully rich sauce with a spicy back note. I loved it, and congratulate myself heartily.
Desserts
My second joint winner of the night from Tom, and not just because he had the confidence/balls to serve a cake that really did fall out of the tin in bits. I once made a cake that did this and was so mortified by the results that I gave the broken cake to my neighbour who I don’t like and made another one. Well done Tom for being rather more sensible and less vain that I am. And double well done for putting together a really tasty, moist, golden apple cake which I really could have polished off without any help at all. Top notch.Matt came up with these lovely profiteroles filled with a strikingly coloured and wonderfully sharp blackberry cream and devilish toffee shards to garnish. A great take on a classic.Unarguably beautiful effort from Stuart- a perfectly presented fruit tart. Great texture from a buttery shotbread base, topped with a rummy custard then immaculately finished with sliced soft fruits. Marvellous.
See you next month for 80s night! Will we have to go full on with outfits, beverages and soundtrack too? Come back in June to find out!
For the pork dish I made click here it’s fantastic.
Food. Boom. 
This all looks very good!