Classic lasagne (Photo by By jules / stonesoup – mum’s lasagne, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10755032)
Dear Readers, I am in tearing haste today as tonight we are having some friends over for dinner for the first time since I broke my leg, and I am rather out of the habit. So, I’m resorting to my old favourite, lasagne. What a forgiving dish this is! You can prepare most of it in advance, and provided you don’t burn it at any stage, it will sit happily in the oven for quite a while if anyone gets lost en route/the tube is playing up/etc etc.
Vegetarian lasagne (Photo by By FloGalsen – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83272195)
Increasingly, though, I’m realising that what makes lasagne so delicious is its texture and the rich tomatoe-y flavour, combined with the white sauce, rather than the meat, and so it’s usually vegetable lasagne these days. Tonight I’m going all out and using aubergine, plus a mixture of ricotta and parmesan. Vegan lasagne is slightly more challenging, but it’s only really about the cheese and there are a lot of umami-ish replacements, though I confess to not being a big fan of nutritional yeast. Let me know what vegan variations you’ve come across, if you have any favourites!
My Mum’s big dinner party dish, I remember, was beef stroganoff (well, this was the 70s), followed by Black Forest gateau (which she often knocked up herself). But she was really more of a party animal than a dinner party girl, which meant vol-au-vents, sausage rolls, and yes, pineapple, cheddar and cocktail onions on sticks. Still, I went to a funeral a few weeks ago, and one of my cousins told me how fantastic he thought my Mum’s parties were. And, on reflection, he’s right – we’d grown up in a tiny house, and once we had a slightly bigger one it seemed as if all of Mum’s urge to provide hospitality and to entertain people came out. I remember one party which ended at five in the morning, with someone that Dad worked with who was in a choir leading a lovely singalong. Magical.
What are your food-related memories? There’s nothing like the taste of a meal to bring back so many recollections, and sometimes just a whiff of soup cooking, or the unmistakable smell of school dinners, acts like a time machine and I’m 9 years-old again, and pretending to be allergic to beetroot so that I don’t have to eat the stuff (though I love it now). Do share!
Olfactory memories can be very strong. Covid brought an end to regular entertaining and I am finding it difficult to get back into it! I usually provide both a meat and a vegetarian dish with salad(s) so that I do not have to ask about dietary preferences – many have changed over the years. I hope your guests enjoyed the vegetable lasagne – I make one with lentils too 🙂
Lentils are great in a lasagne, I thought about doing a lentil version myself but the aubergine one went down pretty well…
As a child we spent 2 weeks of the Summer holidays with my Grandmother in Hereford. She always saved some of her Christmas cake for us. It was a rich home made fruit cake so had matured well but the royal icing was a different story. It was rock hard and breaking into it was quite a challenge.
Aaargh, royal icing can be such a tooth-breaker! I do love a nice bit of fruit cake though.
Lasagne was my wife’s go to dish every Saturday evening when guests were due to arrive for their mountaineering courses. For much the same reason as you describe, it kept well in the oven until everyone was ready and if there were any latecomers, it would keep… 👍👍😊 If there were any vegetarians in the group, she would make 2. I’m not sure what recipe she used for vegans.
While taking the dog for a walk in the local woods, I met the landlady of one of the local pubs, which has the rather nice name of The Stumble Inn! She told me her veggie lasagne took 2 hours to make, but that it was their best seller.
I hope yours went down well and you all had a great evening!
No lasagne left, so I guess that’s a vote of confidence! And one of the guests brought tiramisu and left the remains with us, so that’s dessert sorted for the next few days….
I love doing lasagne for dinner parties – it even translates fairly easily to gluten-free! But my all-time favourite childhood dish was Spinach Cheese Pancakes. A fiddly dish to prepare, so Mum didn’t make it that often, but how I loved it!! I’ve tried to make it myself since, but it never turns out the same as hers. She made it in a stack, so that it turned out drum-shaped like a cake, and poured cheese sauce over it and sprinkled grated cheese on top before popping it in the oven to brown. Portions were cut in wedges.
They sound great, Jay – but it’s true, nothing ever tastes quite like a Mum’s cooking.
It’s the time of year for Seville oranges, isn’t it? My Dad used to spend ages in the kitchen cutting up peel and boiling up marmalade. I quite disliked the smell back then when I was 9 or 10. But now, as we hit Blue Monday time, I long to make it myself…even though we don’t eat enough to justify a batch this year. Maybe I’ll just make it for gifts!
It is, and such a short season – cutting up the peel takes forever! But homemade marmalade is really fab, and as you say it makes a great gift…