Sunday Lunch

My plan for lunch on Sunday was to prepare food that we could cook on the barbecue and, as much as possible, to use food that we had in the freezer.

We had beef strips that I bought in Costco.  Excellent.  I can do a beef teppanyaki on the hot plate on the barbecue.

We had chicken thigh fillets. Cool.  I can do chicken skewers on the grill bit of the barbecue.

We had prawns.  Ooooh. I can do prawn gyoza - not on the barbecue.

We had lots of vegetables (not in the freezer; in the vegetable bowl). I can make a vegetable salad.

We had rice.

We had edamame beans.

We did not have garlic or ginger (an unusual state of affairs in our kitchen).  We had soya sauce and sesame dressing. We had a little sesame oil.  Not enough. We did not have spring onions

We hit Woolies and got garlic, ginger, spring onions, more sesame oil. We got yakitori sauce (I didn't know that existed until I saw it on the shelves - it's lovely!). We picked up sweet soya sauce and a few other bits and pieces.

The lady at the checkout scanned all this and then asked what I was going to use it all for. I said I was doing a loosely Japanese themed Sunday lunch for some guests.  She looked worried.  "Are you sure they like raw meat and fish?" she asked. I assured her I intended to cook the food we would be eating :-)

Alas.  Sunday dawned wet and windy and quite chilly.  I abandoned the barbecue plan. After all, everything that I was intending to do on the barbecue I could just as easily do using the stove and oven.

Gillie, Chris and John arrived, although not Irene who is somewhere in Europe. And we had what was more or less an Oriental tasting menu (I introduced peanuts and lemongrass into the menu; we were mostly in Japan but with Vietnamese and Malaysian influences).

Until we got to dessert. I had loads of little oranges in a bag that a colleague at work had given me. They are not very sweet so you wouldn't just eat them.  I have made jars of marmalade but still have lots left.  So I made a marmalade drizzle cake for dessert.  An abrupt move to the UK to finish our feast. Chris, John and Gillie made it properly British by having a cup of tea instead of wine with their marmalade cake. Jim and I did not !

I hope they enjoyed their visit and lunch.  Jim and  I did. And the rain had cleared by lunch time but it was still cold and windy. I stuck with Plan B and cooked in the kitchen.