My friends and I are terribly busy people. So much so that when this dinner idea was first conceived it was around the time of the Global Financial Crisis last year. And whilst we love dinner parties, the fact was one friend was mid renovation, another mid toddler and we were mid moving so our GFC themed dinner ended up happening a little after what we had initially anticipated, almost a year later in fact, but we thought that the idea had merit and most importantly, the potential to have fun and be creative. After all when you dine out you can pay quite a pretty sum doing so, so we wanted to explore whether it was possible to eat a delicious three course meal for a mere $5 a person. And usually every time we entertain, it usually involves buying the best quality items and not really paying attention to cost as it’s all about spoiling your friends so we wondered whether putting together a dinner party this way would change the dynamics of a dinner party.

My main: Chicken & Pea Pithivier

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I had a serious case of food envy. For the past few months North Americans have been speaking of Meyer Lemons and making Meyer Lemon this and that. For fellow Antipodeans that have never heard of Meyer Lemons, they are a delicate floral breed of lemon with a sweet perfume and a sweeter, less acidic juice  said to be a cross between a mandarin and lemon. You see I desperately wanted some but the shops didn’t carry them and nor did I know anyone with a Meyer Lemon tree. So I looked upon these recipes with a mixture of excitement and serious envy. Then something funny happened. I went to lunch at Greek Gardening God Costa Georgiadis’s house and took home some copies of the first few episodes of his show Costa’s Garden Odyssey.

Meyer Lemons

I watched them and what did I see but a Meyer Lemon tree in his backyard! I sat up  and squealed and within a matter of days the lovely Costa had delivered me some gorgeously fragrant Meyer lemons. I picked one up  – they looked just like regular lemons but when I held one to my nose I recognised that perfumeny mandarin aroma instantly. Of course as I was interviewing him a few days later I knew what I had to do – make him something to eat with these beautiful lemons and the idea of a Meyer Lemon Meringue Pie seemed the perfect choice.

The lemon curd filling is delicious with a lovely Meyer Lemon flavour. I realise I made a veritable cloud of meringue but as Mr NQN prefers the meringue to the lemon as he doesn’t like tart flavours, I made this for his taste too.  The amount of filling I’ve specified actually gives enough for a jar full of lemon curd but that’s never a  bad thing and of course saves you from making it again in a separate cooking session. The quantities can be easily halved if you want a more modest looking pie with less meringue and you don’t want the jar of lemon curd afterwards. When baking it I was nervous – after all I had a guest coming over and this was my first time making it. You can probably see that I made an error in judgement here. I cut it before it was chilled and therefore the lemon filling wasn’t completely set. I heard Julia Robert’s voice from “Pretty Woman” saying to me “Big Mistake! Big! Huge!” as I was cutting it but there was little I could do at that stage.

Of course if you cannot get Meyer lemons try a mix of 2/3 lemon and 1/3 mandarin juice and zest to help give that perfumey fragrance and sweetness with the tart lemon. I have now resolved to grow a potted Dwarf Meyer Lemon tree and Costa has promised to check on the status of our upcoming worm farm (which produces Worm juice, a great fertiliser).

So tell me Dear Reader, what would you grow if you could or what do you currently grow that you love? And if you’re a Black Thumb like me, come and join my club where I’ll try and grow things with Costa’s help!

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Don’t think I can’t see you rolling your eyes there. Another cherry item? Yes but you see, I am besotted by cherries – the black or the sour kind and when I had to select a jam to use in the Bakewell tart for this month’s Daring Bakers challenge I chose to make a Cherry Jam. Of course you might say smirkingly.

Of course you could use any flavour jam. I had intended to make a Wild Hibiscus jam but when I enquired and found it at $80 a kilo I realised that it was price prohibitive. So I tried to modify it by replacing the almond flavour with a rose water in both the pastry and the frangipane which is essentially an almond, egg, butter and sugar mix. The smell of this baking was wonderful. Tastewise, I am not a huge frangipane lover finding it a touch dry so I didn’t love this as much as others did. However, for the recipients, it was soon eaten in record time.

As I speak best through baking I decided to bake this for the nurses and doctors at Manly Hospital who looked after my husband so well on his recent stay. I figured renaming the Bakewell tart as Getwell tart was appropriate. Because I knew you’d like to see a cross section slice, I knew I couldn’t cut one slice out and then give to them so I sliced the whole thing up.

While we’re on the subject of hospitals, the night my husband went in, I was supposed to attend the launch of Table4Ten, a charity dinner held simultaneously across 50 of Sydney’s best restaurants in aid of the Prostate Cancer Foundation. It will be held at 7pm on the 22nd of September 2009 and the lineup of restaurants includes ARIA, Astral, Australian Museum, Bécasse, Beppi’s, Bilson’s, Bistro Moncur, Bistro Ortolan, Buon Ricordo, Buzo, Cafe Sydney, Catalina, Cato’s Fine Foods, China Doll, Cooking for Blokes, Essence, Flying Fish, Fort Denison, Forty-One Restaurant, Four in Hand, Grand National, Guillaume @ Bennelong, Light Brigade, L’incontro, Longrain, Machiavelli, Marque, Mezzaluna, Otto Ristorante, Quay, Restaurant Associates, Rockpool, Sean‘s Kitchen, Steel Bar & Grill, Summit Restaurant, Tetsuya’s, The Beresford Hotel, The Pier, TOKO Restaurant & Bar, Verandah, Wildfire and more.

Each lucky diner will be served a special menu including beverages and the most exciting part apart from the food? The after party at the end at a top secret location for all 500 guests to celebrate together. Tickets are $195 per head (with the option of an additional voluntary tax deductible donation of $55). See the Table4ten website for details.

So tell me Dear Reader, which charity is your favourite and why?

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