Mexican Supper Club at The Nook

Little bit late posting but March's supper club at The Nook held a Mexican theme this time.
So many customers wanted to take part that we decided to host 2 evenings this time!

Sarah, as always, in charge of decorations, went with festival colours for the napkins and table runners. I think it looks really colourful.

 

I can't decide whether I prefer the back room....... 

 

Or the front room.
What's your favourite?

 

 

Sticking with the same colour Kate produced a vibrantly coloured menu design. 

 

 

 

 

So for starters we had......

Ceviche With Shrimp.

Crushed avocado base topped with a shrimp, tomato, onion and coriander mix.  

 

 

This was definitely a best seller on both nights. 

 

 

Beef Empanada filled with a fragrant beef mix and served with soured cream.

 

 

 

Spring Taco With Mushrooms & Tomato Salsa.
This was our vegetarian choice and very tasty indeed.

 

And for the Mains........

No Mexican evening would be right without a good chilli, and we definitely produced a great chilli!

Chunky beef shin chilli served with avocado, sweet potato, homemade tortilla, sour cream and salsa.

I love the presentation of this dish, definitely one of my favourites.

We also offered a vegetable chilli option.

 

 

 

 

Our other vegetarian  dish was a roasted butternut squash filled with a Tex Mex rice mix. Lots of herbs and flavours and mixed corn and beans made this a really tasty meal.

 

 

For a slightly different fish dish....

Tuna Steak with Red Pepper & Pineapple Salsa served on a bed of Coriander Lime Rice. 

 

 

 

And for Dessert.......

 

Chocolate and Chilli Cheesecake.

A gorgeous creamy dessert with a warm chilli glow.

 



 

 

 

Cherry & Almond Chimichangas.

A tortilla filled with cherries and syrup then rolled and panfried in LOTS of butter and topped with more cherries and almonds.

 



 

Yet another successful evening or should I say 2 evenings!!!!

I'll be back with April's Greek Night very soon!

Thanks for popping by. 

Linking up this week with

Simple and Sweet Fridays

Foodie Friday And Everything Else

 

 

 

White Bean & Chicken Chilli

I can understand the concept of writers block must be truly frustrating and depressing for a person in that trade. Having to constantly be inventive, imaginative, inspiring and all in a time limit is a concept I know all too well.
We only have about 7 items on the café menu but they change each week and, every so often, I get 'chefs block' and struggle to produce the goods.

This week my struggle was with my menus hot dish. We only serve 1 a week so I try to keep customers interest with new ideas, classical twists and flavours.
I rarely look to google for my ideas, now I just stick to Pinterest. A truly amazing site where you can put together scrapbooks of all your favourite items on the internet and look at what everyone is scrapbooking.
Traditional chilli con carne is a dish that goes well at the café whenever I put it on so I got rather excited when I saw this White Bean & Chicken Chilli on Pinterest taken from a lovely blog
  The Cafe Sucre Farine .




White Beans & Chicken Chilli

A lovely little blog which I'm sure I will head back to for more ideas in the future.
Having bought all the ingredients I set about on Monday morning to put this little dish together and what a success! As always I got all the girls at work to have a taste test before going on the menu and a big thumbs up I received from them all. My only criticism was that I think I slipped with the chilli powder and cumin as it was slightly too hot for my palate. But then I am girl who only eats korma!!  

If you fancy trying this the recipe can be found here , I can honestly recommend!

White Bean & Chicken Chilli

Linking up this week with
Tasty Tuesdays
foodie fridays and everything else

And if you fancy following me on pinterest where you can find lots of new ideas you can find me Here

Monkey Bread - The Bread Challenge No. 4

It's a well known fact that we eat with our eyes and when I saw the photo of my next challenge my eyes told me I had to attempt it!
An unusual loaf, with a decorative pattern when sliced, and an added flavour of red leicester cheese and chilli.

I found the recipe in "The Great British Bake Off   How To Bake" recipe book. It's quite an easy challenge, give it a go, the recipe is below.

 

Ingredients:

500g Strong White Bread Flour

1 1/2 Tsp Salt

1 x 7g Fast Action Yeast

50g Unsalted Butter

200ml Lukewarm Milk

1 Large Egg

100g Unsalted butter, melted, for coating

150g Grated Red Leicester

1/4 - 1/2 Tsp Dried Chilli Flakes

First make the dough.

Sift the flour into a bowl, add the salt and yeast and make a well in the centre. Melt the butter and add to lukewarm milk and mix in the egg. Add the liquid to the dry mix and mix together to form a dough. Knead for 10 minutes or until smooth, then place in a bowl, cover and leave in a warm place to rise for about an hour, until double in size.

When risen, "punch" the dough down to release the gas in the dough. Knead for a couple of minutes to evenly distribute the gas then cut the dough into about 60 pieces!

 

 

Roll each piece into a rough ball. Add the chilli flakes to the cheese. Dip each ball into the melted butter then cover with the cheese and place in a loaf tin. Pack them in the tin tight. I think my mistake at this stage was not to pack them tight enough.

Pack them in the tin tight.I think my mistake at this stage was to not pack them in tight enough. Cover and leave to rise.

Bake in a hot oven for 20 - 30 minutes.

Monkey Bread

Served best straight from the oven.

There is a sweet alternative to this using cinnamon and chopped walnuts instead of the chilli cheese. Maybe I will attempt that recipe soon!