A new recipe a week: Week six – Dinner Party!

This week I cooked my first dinner party that Hija hosted. It was for 8 people including us, and featured several recipes that I had already made as a part of my new recipe a week adventures. The full menu was as follows:

Zucchini in Salsa di Pomodoro

Chocolate Marinated Spiced Steak (a tweak from last week, I melted the ice-cream, added my spices and then added some trimmed pieces of steak and let it marinate for over a day, and then fried this in a pan)

Tilapia Fillets En Papillote

• 6 tilapia fillets, cut in half
• 2 large potatoes, sliced very thin (we used a Mandolin, I love those)
• 2 large ripe tomatoes, cut into 1/4inch-thick slices (we used chopped tomatoes in a box to success)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 24 fresh basil leaves (Fairway had sold out of Basil plants so dried Basil it was)
• Olive oil
• Fish herbs in a jar from Fairway

Preheat the oven to 450*F. Tear off a 1-foot-square piece of aluminium foil. Place a thin layer of potato slices, roughly the same size as the fillet, on the foil; top with a piece of fish, a slice of tomato, salt and pepper, basil, and a drizzle of oil. Seal the package and repeat the process with the other pieces.

This recipe is actually a couple as you can make variations on the packages. We did another with a bed of tomato, the fish on top, and then fish herbs and pepper and white wine and sometimes a little olive oil.

Place all the packages in a large baking dish and bake for about 30 minutes. Serve the closed packages, allowing each diner to open his or her own at the table.

Everyone loved the food, which was obviously a pleasing thing to hear!