Food time!

This is my favourite bit of organising an event – the menu tasting!

On Thursday I went down into the kitchens of the EICC to taste the menu for the dinner at the ball. Present were Nick Nairn and Leith’s head chef, Iain McLean (in the photo), Rhona and Gail also from Leith’s and Tanja from the EICC.

The menu is Scottish but each course has just a nod to Africa. The starter is salmon fishcakes with chermoula and a chilli salad. The main course is loin of lamb with an African spice rub and we have raspberry crème brulee cranachan with cashew nut shortbread for pudding. The Scottish oatmeal and African cashew nuts are very complimentary. There wasn’t much of that left….

I have to say that I’ll be torn between sticking to the main menu and the vegetarian options which are marinated feta with couscous to start and a delicious and elaborate walnut and squash main course.

We’ll be serving Malawian tea and coffee too!

In consultation with Nick, Leith’s had produced a wonderful menu. A few minor adjustments were made – like adding a dollop of mash to the main course in case people need some carbohydrate – but that’s the food sorted!

We discussed Nick’s demonstration of the spice rub for the lamb and pinned him down for a mile in the 500 miles Challenge - making meringues. He’ll start at 7.15pm in his whites. Nick is going to make African themed meringues with brown sugar and a mango cream and we hope to bake them in time for dinner!