Fancy Birthday Dinner for Mummy Crowley

My sister and I asked Mum if she would like to go out for her birthday at the end of July or have a nice family dinner at home. Mum elected option B: a nice family dinner at home. As Mum was the birthday girl it wouldn't have been fair to let her cook so Sian and I took matters into our own hands.

After pouring through cookbooks, a few lengthy discussions and plenty of me not listening we settled on a menu that Mum would love. Light and summery, full of flavour, and no meat. So last Saturday morning we got up early and headed to Cork to get our ingredients in the best shop in the world: The English Market. We met our brother, David, in the Farm Gate for coffee and cake (and to collect his share of the budget) and we headed off with our list. Then it was straight back home to get everything ready and set the table.

The menu we settled on was:

Vodka soaked Watermelon

Baked goats cheese stuffed figs with walnut salad

Pan seared scallops with asparagus, tomato & basil salad and new poatoes

Sicilian Wedding Cake

Tea/coffee and after dinner chocolates



Baked goats cheese stuffed figs with walnut salad

The goats cheese was from Iago. The figs were bought in Fallon & Byrne in Dublin the day before for €1/fig. We halfed the figs and scooped out a tiny bit of the flesh, filled the hole with teaspoon of goats cheese and baked in the oven for about 20/25 min on gas 5. Sian made a dressing from olive oil, mustard, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper and the leftover fig flesh.

Scallops pre searing... if only they knew what was coming.

We got the scallops from Ballycotton Seafood. They also cost €1/scallop. After some very helpful advice from the professionals on Twitter (@HeyPestoie, @SHearneSmith and @LillyHiggins) I lightly dusted the scallops with salt & pepper, arranged them clockwise on a very hot pan with a little bit of butter and olive oil. After turning once I threw the juice of one lime in the pan at the end of cooking. When I took the scallops off the pan I left the juices simmering for a minute to make a sauce (it worked!).

Pan seared scallops with asparagus.

Sian blanched the asparagus early that evening and while we were having the starter she left them in a tray in a low oven with a sprinkling of water to steam. She tossed them in olive oil and pepper before serving. They were perfect, I've never had asparagus as nice.

All that was left of the tomato & basil salad.

Sian adding the finishing touches to dessert.

The recipe for the Sicilian Wedding Cake came from Lilly Higgins' blog, Stuff I make, bake and love. We were only feeding six people, not 30 so we divided the ingredients by 5 and an executive decision was made to add Amaretto to the mix!

The birthday girl.

Sicilian Wedding Cake.

All plates were cleared after every course. Dinner was a roaring success!