If you didn’t read last weeks post, click here and get up to speed. In short – we had a party last week and had a big menu full of new recipes and processes, highlighting vegan food, prepared – so how did it go? Well, the party itself was awesome and the food went over great, so all in all a success.
We ended up preparing the night before and then cooked ALL DAY – like seriously all day, we took a 30 minute nap and then went back at it (up til 4AM that night too!). It was exhausting but so worth it to do so many new and exciting recipes and then see them get gobbled up later.
Wins: Jamaican no-beef patties. These little beauties were the hit of the night and are now going to have to be on regular rotation in our house. Much thanks to the Caribbean Vegan/ Taymer Mason for her amazing recipe you can read it here (the only thing we changed was we made them mini and added a little less scotch bonnet as our jerk seasoning was already quite spicy). I saw she also has a cookbook which we are now buying, the recipes – banana fritters, bajan soup + dumplings, coconut turnovers – all look amazing!
Win/Loss: Both a win and a loss for us was the vegan caviar (which will totally be getting it’s own post) – we decided on the flavour of carrot ginger that would pair nicely with the the cucumber, avocado sushi. The first time we tried the process it failed, the balls were not solidifying just falling into a big, yucky mass. Luckily Nick came to the rescue and used his wonderful scientific logic-brain to repair the recipe and the second time – boom, we had balls!
We were overjoyed, and they definitely looked impressive. The only loss comes from the flavour. It just wasn’t there for me, there was just a vague hint of carrot/ginger but it was just too subtle. Next time (and there will definitely be a next time as this was such a weird, fun process) we are going to amp it up.
Losses: Not enough food. We were trying to guess how many people came and it was a little over 40, I think we probably made enough for about 30 so next time we’re gonna bump it up. I’m slowly learning how to cook for lots of people, hopefully someday it will come a little more naturally and not have to be such a math game.
I can now rest knowing we had at least one party where we did right by our veeg friends, though I suspect we will always have more vegan-friendly menus from now on.
I would totally like to encourage everyone to go ahead and also experiment with some recipes, cuisines and processes that challenge them in new ways – and throwing a party is a great excuse. Please invite me 🙂
Cauliflower with kale pesto
