After surviving a (seemingly deadly!) bout of flu in the first few weeks of January on predominantly porridge and fruit, I was fortunate enough to have an early break with a ten-day holiday in the stunningly beautiful Mauritius. Despite not cooking myself, the country’s multicultural cuisine and abundance of fresh ingredients ensured I ate plenty of great food from scratch – the taste of sunshine is amazing!

Whilst this was a break from my own culinary reality, it was a nice reminder of what this project is all about – really enjoying great food.

And I definitely picked up some great recipes to try at home (don’t worry, when I make them I will share).

So back to cold, grey, rainy England with a renewed sense of excitement about the project, and as I’m not one to shy away from a challenge, in my first week back I hosted my first dinner party from scratch!

Two very enthusiastic friends were happy to dive head first into hot oil to cook up a hearty and delicious fish and chips (not the classiest of dinner party choices, I know … but sometimes class can’t compete with comfort).

Here is the abbreviated recipe and method for scrumptious fish and chips from scratch:

This meal involved very little preparation, other than a large amount of hot oil in a pan and lots of potato peeling – I very selfishly left the potato peeling and chopping (and debate over how to cut the potatoes to get the desired ‘chip’ shape) to my very wonderful friends – if you want to know we went for chip shop shape.

Meanwhile, as they put it, I whipped up a batter (merely seasoned flour and water), heated the oil and started whipping up the lemon cake.

Two and a half hours of cooking, 3 batches of chips, fish (and even a small bit of broccoli) in hot oil, 2 burning fingers, an entire sink of cold water and tray of ice later, we emerged triumphant with the most satisfying meal ever – (I’ve included a photo and I wont lie, I think it looks like the most unappetizing heart attack on a plate, but rest assured it was delicious!)

It was so good in fact we never even got around to the lemon cake, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it made a handy, if not very healthy and nutritionally unbalanced, lunch on Friday.

All in all Suppers From Scratch first dinner party rose to the occasion like a perfectly formed soufflé 🙂

(I saw a sign in Camden that claimed they had the best fish and chips in Camden – they were wrong, nothing beats homemade 🙂 )