Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Celebrate New Year with a taste of the East

Post Thumbnail

With 2018 just hours away, we are all no doubt gearing up for various gatherings of family and friends for Hogmanay, says Fife-based freelance chef and caterer Patrick Gilmour.

Although not as stressful as the Christmas day feast, there is always the question of what to serve up if you’re in charge of the food. My family has, as we’ve got older, tended to veer towards a smaller house party with some close friends rather than a large gathering. Last Hogmanay I turned out a dozen passion fruit soufflés for dessert which is easier than you may think, if you know how!

This year I’m planning to look to the Far East for our menu inspiration, having had a trip to Vietnam in 2014 and wanting to move away from the usual French and British cuisine I cook at my outside catering events. The Asian way of dining is so conducive to a party and gets everyone diving in, often using their hands instead of cutlery.

Patrick Gilmour.

Vietnamese food is often full of different elements that all get put on the table and you then ‘build’ the dish on your plate before devouring it. Their variety of fresh greens and herbs is incredible, and although much of the cooking is fried in oil, these herbs lift the dishes and give them such freshness and zing, especially the mint.

There are so many dishes to go for and that adds to the fun of the party, as well as hopefully offering something for everyone. One of the dishes I’m going to cook is the banh xeo pancakes (which means ‘sizzling cake’) that we ate in Hoi An, and then subsequently went on a day’s cooking course to learn how to make.

An hour before you want to cook, mix together 400g rice flour, 2 tsp salt, 2 tsp turmeric, 500ml water and 250ml beer. Leave it at room temperature. Then you’ll need 250g of prawns and/or pork finely chopped, 2 spring onions finely sliced, and 250g bean sprouts. Heat a little oil in a pan and fry some prawns/pork for a couple of minutes. Pour in enough batter to make a thin layer, top with a few bean sprouts and spring onion and fry over medium- high heat until the bottom of the pancake is crispy. Fold the pancake in half and turn out on to a plate. Repeat the process until all the ingredients and batter is used up. To serve, everyone takes a pancake and adds some topping mix (mint, coriander, basil, lettuce), rolls it up and dips in to a peanut dipping sauce.

Served with some classic gin-style mojito cocktails, using one of the many artisan Scottish gins, it’s a perfect celebration of East meets West to send off 2017 and greet 2018.

Chef’s tip

A peanut dipping sauce is really useful for lots of Asian style dishes and easily made with a spoonful of crunchy peanut butter, some garlic, soy sauce, brown sugar, pinch of chilli powder, lime and half cup of coconut milk. Put all the ingredients in a pan and mix over a moderate heat for 10 seconds.

http://patrickgilmour.co.uk