THE RETRO ONE
Hit after hit of golden oldies
THE DINNER PARTY - THE RETRO ONE
MENU TO SERVE 6 PEOPLE
SNACK - DEVILLED EGGS
STARTER - PRAWN COCKTAIL
MAIN - CHICKEN, CHIPS AND COLESLAW
PUDDING - JELLY
One of my favourite restaurants in London is Brasserie Zedel. Not because of the food necessarily - because of the vibe. I feel like I’m in a glorious time warp with cheese trolleys and pink napkins and good, old fashioned cocktails. I do love the style of food there too - it’s a classic French brasserie so I know what I’m getting. A bit like when you go to a completely obscure pub - you know you will be able to order a pie or a ploughmans or a pint of prawns and it will be reliably edible, if not amazing. There is something extremely comforting about seeing dishes on a menu that you know, that you have eaten over and over again. I love to be adventurous, don't get me wrong, but treating yourself is easier when it’s something that’s a bit nostalgic, a bit luxurious. Mac and cheese is a good example of this. It’s nothing new, it never is. But we all want to eat it because it reminds us of being young and gleeful and carefree. Nostalgia is a big player in this episode of The Dinner Party, and a big reason why retro food is so heavenly.
You may have noticed my penchant for vintage tableware (and seen where I buy it if you subscribe to MORE PLEASE) but I am also a little bit obsessed with retro food to put on it. If you haven’t been paying attention to London’s restaurant scene, retro food has been steadily making a comeback for the last decade. Although… can it make a comeback if the point is that it's retro? Is it… resurrecting? I don’t know. Also, can you be nostalgic about something you never lived through? Important questions for another time. Anyway! Some of the most popular, most chic restaurants in London have been sticking to golden oldies, pub classics and school dinners for a while - ever since St John reminded them all how good they were - and now it’s BLOODY FASHIONABLE. And I for one, am thrilled.
So why do people shy away from cooking like this in the home? I think there’s a misconception that if something doesn’t have some sort of twist on it that it isn’t as fun or challenging or cool. I strongly disagree. As literally everyone has said at least once - if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. When you’re hosting, doing something simple and smashing it is so much better than doing something complicated and only managing mediocre. This menu is filled with classics but no riffs, no twists, just good, delicious food.
SNACK - DEVILLED EGGS
I have a medical addiction to egg and mayo, and while that is just as good (and would be great as a snack - probably coming soon), Devilled Eggs are just so bloody CUTE! And, they are easy and fun to make and make you feel very NigellaDomesticGodessy.
12 free range eggs
100g mayonnaise
A good shake of tabasco, depending on how spicy you like it
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp Old Bay or celery salt
½ tsp English mustard powder
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsps water
1 tbsp olive oil
Small handful of freshly snipped salad cress
Small handful of chives
Bring a deep saucepan of water to the boil. When the water is at a rolling boil, carefully lower the eggs into it using a spoon and set a timer for 9 minutes. While your eggs are boiling, prepare a large bowl of generously iced water. When the timer is up, use a slotted spoon to move the eggs straight from the pan into the iced water, giving them a little tap to break the shells once they are submerged. Leave to cool for 10/15 minutes.
To peel the eggs, gently tap them on your work surface all over to break the shell, then peel. I find it helpful to keep the eggs submerged in the water while I do this.
Slice the eggs in half lengthways carefully, wiping the knife off between each egg. Scoop the yolks into a bowl and lay the whites onto a tray, cover with clingfilm and refrigerate until needed.
Use a fork to smoosh the yolks up before transferring to a blender with all the other filling ingredients. Blend until smooth, checking the consistency isn't too thick, if it is, add a splash more water. Pop in a piping bag with a fluted nozzle (if you have one) and refrigerate until needed.
When you are nearly ready to serve, lay out the egg whites onto your plates. If they are really domed and sliding around a bit, I find it helpful to pipe a tiny bit of filling onto the plate for the white to stick to. Pipe the filling into the yolk cavity of each egg, you will have more than enough to be generous. Top with your snipped cress and chives and serve.
MAKE AHEAD - you can boil your eggs 24hrs in advance. Cut open the eggs and make the filling up to 6 hrs before, just make sure both are covered and stored in the fridge until 30 mins before you serve
SUBSTITUTIONS - you can use kewpie Mayo if you prefer it, and swap Dijon for German mustard (don’t go whole grain- it won’t give you a smooth mix). Equally if you don’t have any English mustard powder, it’s fine without it, just use a dab more mustard. Tabasco can easily be swapped for your hot sauce of choice; Sriracha, Valentina and Frank’s are all pretty good subs.
STARTER- PRAWN COCKTAIL
THIS is a dish that I can rarely look past on a menu. It is just such an iconic, delicious little starter and again, like the Devilled Eggs, is so fun because it's so kitsch. To my surprise, in my research for this newsletter I discovered it’s not a legal requirement to serve with triangles of buttered brown bread but nonetheless I wouldn’t risk it. I might have missed it on an obscure page of gov.uk - like one of those old by-laws they catch mobsters on - and I can’t believe I’m saying this again: I am not a lawyer. Play it safe and do the right thing. Despite the metric tonnes of sourdough I consume, soft, sliced stuff is much better here.
300g fresh, cooked atlantic prawns
12 cooked shell on king prawns, heads removed
140g mayonnaise
60g ketchup
4 dashes of tabasco
2 dashes of worcestershire sauce
½ tsp cayenne
¼ tsp smoked paprika
2 firm but ripe avocado- hass are best for this- sliced thinly lengthways
1 small iceberg lettuce, finely sliced
Small handful of fresh dill to serve
1 lemon, wedged into 6
6 slices of buttered brown bread, cut into triangles, room temperature
To make the prawn cocktail, mix all of the dressing ingredients together and season to taste. Add in the small prawns and mix well, then refrigerate until needed.
Half an hour before you are ready to serve, shred your lettuce and slice your avocados. Dress the avocado slices generously with fresh lemon juice to prevent oxidising.To fill each glass, pop in a generous handful of lettuce and 2 smaller slices of avocado to the bottom layer (this provides a little bench for the prawns to sit on). Place two tablespoons of the prawn cocktail on top. Tuck three more slices of avocado upright on one side of the glass, then hang two large prawns on the other side of the glass. Garnish with fresh dill and a sprinkle of smoked paprika and serve with lemons and buttered soft brown bread.
MAKE AHEAD - you can make the prawn cocktail a day ahead, but don’t be tempted to assemble anything more than half an hour before serving. Make sure when you butter your bread the butter is nice and soft.
SUBSTITUTIONS - if you want to go really boujis, use the same weight in white crab meat in the Mayo and a crab claw instead of prawns for a delicious Crab cocktail. Definitely play with your lettuce options, I’ve kept mine very classic but rocket, radicchio, chicory would all work too. Similar to the Devilled Eggs, use any hot sauce you like! A fruity, scotch bonnet one here would be nice too like Dalston Chillies (my absolute fave).
MAIN - CHICKEN, CHIPS AND COLESLAW
I don’t think my parents ever made this for me growing up, but I somehow remember it as a holiday food. Rotisserie chicken, like the hot ones you buy at the supermarket, with its juices softening a pile of crunchy chips, served with one of the most ubiquitous old school salads - coleslaw. I love chicken and chips because it feels like a kids meal, and I have absolutely no problem serving it in my 30’s at a Dinner Party because it’s bloody delicious. I spent a long time testing the marinade for this and I’m bloody proud of it if I don’t say so myself; it really captures the ‘e-numbers in a bag’ flavour of hot takeaway chicken - but better, obviously.
A NOTE ON OVEN CHIPS - I am suggesting using oven chips here, because deep frying chips at home for 2 is one thing, but for 6 it’s another matter - and as you know, I am all about lightening the load. Oven chips are a really useful product and can be VERY good if you treat them right - it’s basically an oven-fry situation. If you want to go the whole hog, then my recipe for delicious homemade chips is in this week's MORE PLEASE, subscribe to check it out!
For the Chicken
6 chicken legs
150ml olive oil
2 tbsps All Purpose Seasoning- this stuff is amazing! One of my pantry staples
2 tbsps garlic powder
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp onion powder
2 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp dried sage
½ tsp black pepper
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp fine salt
Juice of 2 lemons- one for the marinade, one for finishing
A large handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped
For the Chips
1.2kg oven chips- I like crinkle cut or french fries for this
100ml vegetable oil
Plenty of salt
1 tbsp Old Bay/All Purpose/Cajun Seasoning
For the Coleslaw
400g white cabbage, finely sliced
1 small white onion, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, coarsely grated
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp cider vinegar
80g mayonnaise
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp pickle juice (optional)
Start by mixing all of the ingredients for the marinade together. In a large dish, cover your chicken legs in the marinade and rub the mix in really well. Pop in the fridge for 2 hours minimum, or up to 36hrs before your dinner.
To make the coleslaw, finely shred the cabbage, grate the carrot and chop the onion. Pop together in a bowl, sprinkle with a teaspoon of salt and leave to sit for 20-30 minutes. Stir together the dressing ingredients (don’t add any salt) and mix it with the veg. I like adding pickle juice to this aka the liquid in a jar of pickles, because it offers a slightly burgery vibe, but if you don’t have any don’t worry. Pop into the fridge until half an hour before it is needed.
Preheat the oven to 205 fan. Pop the chicken legs onto a large oven tray, skin side up, leaving space if possible (if your oven can take 4 trays, then divide the chicken into two). Evenly split the vegetable oil between two more oven trays and toss the chips in it really well, coating each chip. Pop the chicken into the very top of your oven, and then the chips below it. Roast the chicken for 40-50 minutes, until amazingly browned and gorgeous. If it needs more browning, turn up the oven to grill and then brown for 2 minutes or so (make sure the chips are out though)! Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes. For the chips, turn them every 10-12 minutes, cooking for about 40-50 as well, until divinely crisp. As you are cooking the chips, check if any are colouring more quickly or are done, and remove them to drain on kitchen towel. Before you serve, you can flash them back in the oven.
Rotate all of your trays whenever you feel necessary, if things are browning too quickly or not enough- it’s good to keep things moving!
To serve, plate the chicken legs, then squeeze the juice of a lemon into the pan juices. Stir through the chopped parsley and pour over your chicken. Pop the chips and coleslaw into bowls and serve with PLENTY of condiments- the bare minimum would be mayonnaise, hot sauce and ketchup.
MAKE AHEAD - Definitely marinade your chicken ahead of time, up to 2 days before. The coleslaw can be made in the morning too, but any further ahead and you run the risk of stinky old onion flavour. If you have a really small oven, cook the chips first, remove and leave to drain on kitchen paper, then cook the chicken. When the chicken is done and resting, pop the chips back into the oven at 180 for 8-10 minutes to re-crisp, adding a splash more oil to coat.
SUBSTITUTIONS - You can use that marinade on a whole chicken if you prefer, or even fish or pork. If you don’t want to use oven chips, then have you tried potato smilies? Hash browns? Spiral fries? All excellent. In the coleslaw, feel free to swap the white cabbage for red, and chuck in some fennel if you want too.
DESSERT- JELLY
Jelly will always be nostalgic as hell for me. It reminds me of days in the soft play centre near where I grew up, parties at my friends houses, Friday school dinners. It also reminds me of chic yet gaudy 70’s dinner parties, with sparkling jelly moulds wobbling and lighting up the dinner table. Jelly is just FUN, and why don’t we serve fun things to our friends any more? Why was that limited to childhood? So make this jelly, which by the way is very very good and tastes like the essence of rhubarb, and have some fun with whipped cream and sprinkles like you’re 10 again.
A NOTE ON RHUBARB - When I first tested this recipe rhubarb was still in season and lovely. Now at the time of publishing, the only ripe, pink rhubarb around is the forced stuff, which is still nice but harder to find. So I have adapted it to work with strawberries too which are coming into their season and are generally easy to get hold of in case you can’t find rhubarb.
1.4l cold water
900g forced rhubarb, trimmed (1.4kg whole roughly) OR 900g hulled strawberries (1kg whole weight)
300g sugar if making rhubarb, 250g if making strawberry
200g raspberries
6 pieces of fresh lemon peel (if making strawberry add a squeeze of juice too)
12 leaves of gelatine
Squirty cream
Sprinkles to serve
A jelly mould or savarin mould that will hold at least 1.4l liquid, lightly greased with a flavourless oil
Pop the strawberries into a large saucepan with the raspberries, lemon peel and sugar and cover with the water. The raspberries here are a great little injection of colour and sweetness but aren’t really for flavour. Pop the mix on a low heat and leave it to come to a simmer slowly. Once simmering, cook gently for 10 minutes until the fruit has softened, and then turn off the heat and leave to infuse for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, pop your gelatine leaves into a bowl of iced water to “bloom”, which means to soften. This will help them dissolve better in the liquid. Pop a fine sieve over a large bowl or pan and line it with a J-cloth (muslin is best but it’s expensive so J-cloths are fine here). Strain the mix through the sieve but GENTLY. Use a ladle and do it bit by bit, don’t be tempted to pour as you will likely lose some mix/it will overflow.
When you have strained, you need to weigh it to 1.4l as the fruits will have released some additional liquid. If you have loads left over, you can soak some more gelatine and use it. You need 4 sheets for every 400ml of liquid. While the liquid is still hot, whisk the bloomed leaves into the mix one by one, squeezing out any excess cold water from them before you add them, If the mix has cooled down too much, they won’t dissolve, so heat it up again if you need to.
When all the gelatine is incorporated, pour into the greased mould and cover with clingfilm, then pop in the fridge to set. Same rules apply as with the chocolate cream pie from last week - if your fridge is stinky, clean it! Your desserts will taste of your stinky fridge! Leave to set for 8-12 hours at least.
To serve, remove from the fridge, remove the cling film and dunk the base in a tray of warm water for about 5-10 seconds. Then, pop a large plate on top and invert the whole thing, gently! Decorate with the squirty cream and sprinkles and serve with ice cream if you wish.
MAKE AHEAD - OBVIOUSLY you need to make the jelly ahead, and for peace of mind I would do it at least the day before. If you leave it til the day of you run the risk of it not setting because you will be opening your fridge a lot, and this will affect your set.
SUBSTITUTIONS - As above, you can use strawberries instead of rhubarb, or raspberries. I have only tested with sheet gelatine, but you can obviously use vege-gel or agar agar, but check your ratios online and perhaps other recipes that use it so you definitely get the right amount.
TIMEPLAN
This first plan should help you see what you can get done in advance, so that for each course on the day you have at least 1, maybe 2 major parts of it taken care of. I appreciate that not everyone’s weeks are easily peppered with dinner party prep, but if you’re hosting after work or on a day where you can’t be in the kitchen, getting ahead is going to save your arse.
MISE-EN-PLACE
This is the fancy name we give to the food prep each section in the restaurant needs to do for their dishes. Hopefully breaking down each dish like this will help you feel organised. Use the hour before your guests arrive to organise your space too- I find it helpful to group ingredients by dish so it is all in the same place. Little ramekins are really useful for this.
STYLING
DEVILLED EGGS
Let’s be honest, these babies style themselves. As always, a big platter is great or split into small plates and dotted around is also great. I wouldn’t advise a board for these guys, too slippery. Plus if you have chintzy plates, pale blues, yellows, greens, even purples, then this is the time to use them. If you don’t have chintzy plates but want some then subscribe to MORE PLEASE to see my list of where to get them in the post MORE PLEASE- The Veggie One.
PRAWN COCKTAIL
I strongly strongly advise you make your prawn cocktails in glasses or glass bowls for the full Mad Men effect. Even a sundae glass would work, or do what I did and use champagne coupes if you have them. Martini glasses and jars work too, although jars are harder to stick a fork in.
CHICKEN AND CHIPS
I love a sharing moment, so platters or bowls of chicken, chips and coleslaw dotted around the table look great. However this is also a lovely plated dish, so if you fancy doing individual plates, pop on your chicken and nestle the chips in the nook of the thigh, then drizzle over those amazing juices. Keep the coleslaw separate so people can add their own. Because this is quite a brown dish, blues and greens will lift it, and again the chintzier the better.
JELLY
Find a plate that's big enough for your jelly and you are golden. It doesn’t need to be the prettiest, because in all likelihood you will be covering it up with squirty cream. I love serving this whole because it really styles itself!!
FOR THE TABLE
If you're going full retro then get yourself a lovely, vibrant plastic table cloth, like this one from Oklahoma https://www.okla.co.uk/collections/oilcloth/products/rosario-oilcloth-blue .
Get your funkiest glasses out, shove a cocktail cherry on every drink and decorate the table with little posies of daisies.
WELL THAT WAS FUN! I so loved creating this retro menu for you and I cannot wait for you guys to enjoy it. If you want more like this then never fear - I enjoyed it so much that this is going to be the first in a series of MANY retro ones. And remember, just because something is simple, doesn’t mean it is boring.
Rosie x