World Food Night: The Eating

Unsurprisingly (or maybe a little bit surprisingly, given the specific foods I don't like), I LOVE a good food event. So finding one where the whole country could get involved got me a little bit excited. A while back I posted about World Food Night, and I am finally getting the chance to tell you what a rewarding and delicious experience it was!

As I mentioned previously, the concept of the genius World Food Night, organised by Refugee Action, is that everyone you invite to dinner pays for it, which then gets donated to Refugee Action to help starving people all over the world. You pick recipes from their awesome map, which is also filled with inspirational stories about where the people giving these precious recipes got them from.

I got a bit greedy. I'm sorry, I really am, but I couldn't pick just one. So I may have made three separate dishes. Oh, and I made a dessert too. This greed paid off however, because the stuff we couldn't manage to eat served for dinners for a whole week. I even froze some of it, so technically I'm STILL eating it. Hooray for world food! It was always my favourite aisle in Tesco.

So what did I make? The Cheese and Onion Pie from Lancashire and the Diruni Potato Cakes from Russia were gorgeous, had ample amounts of carb (and dairy of course, in the cheese) and were easy to make (get recipes for both here). But you know how ridiculous I am at sticking to recipes, so for the Sichuan Hotpot from China, I mixed things up a bit, and I have to say, the result was pretty beaut.

Sichuan Hotpot

(adapted from the World Food Night recipe, found here)

1) Marinate the tofu. Add the tofu to a large sealable container and toss in the soy sauce, Chinese five spice and garlic. Close the container, give it a good shimmy (you don't want to give it a vigourous shake as such, because this might break apart the delicate tofu) and leave for at least four hours.

2) Bring a huge pan of water to the boil, and add all the beans and the peanuts. Leave it simmering while you get on with the rest.

3) In a wok, heat some oil and add the garlic, ginger, spring onions, and chilli. Stir fry, and after a couple of minutes add the chilli sauce/paste. Finally add the broccoli and pepper, stir fry for a couple more minutes, then add to your bean broth, along with the red wine vinegar. Turn the heat right down under the pot, and let it all mingle beautifully while you prepare the last few bits.

4) Make the peanut sauce. In a very small pan or mini stock pot fry the extra spring onions in oil. Add the garlic, ginger, coriander and chilli flakes, and then the peanut butter, lemongrass paste, creamed coconut, and after mixing, the soy sauce. Mix all together so it turns into a sauce, and turn the heat right down. If you find it clags ups before you're ready to serve, add a bit of water and mix it in well.

5) Make the tofu. Heat a pan with oil and coat the tofu in the flour. Carefully add it to the pan and fry for a few minutes on one side, then turn over with a spatula to do the other. Be careful not to overcrowd the tofu  - do it in batches if you need to - and also beware of angry, spitting oil!

6) Serve, serve it now! Bring the hot pot to the table (but please be careful not to burn anything or spill boiling broth all over yourself - I nearly did this. It's VERY hot!) and serve with brown rice (or white if you rather), and the peanut sauce to drizzle over as you wish. The tofu can either be dipped in, scattered on top, or dunked inside and mixed with everything else, although you may lose the crispness this way. DE-BLOODY-LICIOUS.

I was about to say 'the best thing about this dish' - but there are too many best things about it. Here are all the amazing things about it:

1) It helped to raise money for starving people all over the world
2) It was a wonderful experiment of trying something new and using different methods
3) As well as being ridiculously nice, it also felt kind of wholesome - the vegetables, the warmth of the hotpot, the wholegrain rice and beans - it definitely gave an impression that we were putting something very good for us into our mouths
4) It was a very communal thing to eat - people helping themselves to the different bits was great
5) The leftovers made my life. The very next day I quickly boiled some noodles and made it into a ramen, which was unbelievably good, and I've frozen some to use as an Asian stock for something, too.

A very quick paragraph on how I made my dessert, as there is ALWAYS room for dessert. I first came up with my Caribbean Trifle when I got back from Grenada for the first time, and had some leftover Jamaica Ginger Cake (one of my favourite shop bought cakes, by the way). I always go on about mixing things up and substituting things in food, and this has become a staple example of me doing that. Slice up a Jamaica Ginger Cake and arrange it at the bottom of a deep bowl or trifle dish, scatter with some chopped mango (and banana and pineapple too, if you like) and pour over a more than generous helping of dark rum (spiced rum would also be wonderous). Next it's a carton of fresh vanilla custard, which you might want to spice with some ginger or nutmeg. Whip up some double cream which has been mixed with a little sugar, about 3tbsp dessicated coconut and even more rum, at least a shot, then layer on top of the custard. Finish with more mango and a lavish grating of dark chocolate (preferably from the beauteous Grenada Chocolate Company). Yes, there might be a bit of calorie in this dish - but we're looking for culture here, right? Just maybe try and beware getting a third helping.

I love doing stuff for other people, and helping to make a difference. But it's so much better when it's this fun and filling.

Although World Food Night has passed, I had to hold my own one late due to certain things that were going on. It's not too late to hold yours! All the details on their website.

World Food Night

I am so excited to be taking part in - wait for the hashtags - #WorldFoodNight. It's ran by Refugee Action and the beautiful part is that ANYONE can take part from ANYWHERE, on Saturday 1st March. I, for example, will be taking part from my humble kitchen and questionably sized dining table.

The idea is, you hold a dinner, ideally using a recipe from the World Food Night website or recipe pack, and the people who come round and eat your offerings pay, however much or little as they want. All these service charges then get donated to Refugee Action, who help to prevent starvation for refugees in countries all over the world.

The tricky part is obviously choosing what to cook. I was prepared to have to de-tomato and vegetarianise a lot of the recipes but a lot of them actually come fully prepped to my fussy needs. At the moment, I'm torn between the Sichuan Hotpot from China or a more traditional Cheese and Onion Pie from good old Blighty... both completely different, but equal amounts of temptation. Even though I've just consumed a pretty large piece of cake, I'm now hungry again just writing this... oops!

Can I just point out how completely overjoyed I was to receive my fundraising pack? I was in a bad mood and it really cheered me up. My name was handwritten onto it (correctly spelled too!), and as well as all the bits you need for your dinner - recipe cards, place settings, STICKERS etc - it also had two teabags from Lancashire Tea and a trial membership card for Gourmet Society! I honestly felt sliiightly birthdayish (hey - it's my fake birthday. I'm allowed to make up words). This is not, it seems, a charity event in which the organisers expect you to do all the hard work. The team are clearly as enthused and dedicated as they need us 'chefs' to be. Sign up here.

I will let you know after March 1st, what I chose, how I cooked it, and how it turned out!