How good is it when you are at a restaurant, and you pick up the plate in front of you. You then flip it over so you can see where it’s come from, and then know exactly where to go to purchase them. And how much better is it when you have a dinner party at home. With dinnerware that your friends pick up and flip over, as they admire the ones you chose yourself? A big part of nutrition and food is having a meal times that encourage a positive relationship with food. Where food is savoured over great conversation at the dinner table. And a big part of this is having beautiful crockery to cook, and to serve, your well thought out menu on.
I love that Maxwell & Williams understand this, and so in conjunction with them, here are the ingredients to a well plated dinner party, using dinnerware that is sure to impress.
Entrée
Homemade olive dinner rolls served with extra virgin olive oil and cheese, served on the Cream Caviar Speckle Bowl and Wayfarer Bowl in Pebble by Maxwell and Williams.
I recently have been experimenting with different bread recipes, so was excited to test this out on some friends. Using good quality wholegrain flour, and allowing a few hours for fermenting and the dough to rise means both a dense, flavourful roll that is also good for the gut. Due to the extra flavour from the olives, I chose to pair this with some mild Fior de Latte cheese and Manchego, along with some great quality extra virgin olive oil.
Main
MainRoasted winter vegetables, roasted in the Epicurious Rectangular Baker, with slow roast lamb shoulder, served on the Caviar Oval Plate in black. These mains were served with a minted pea dip in the Wayfarer bowl in pebble. The meal was plated on Wayfarer dinner plates, in pebble.
Roast dinners remind me of long family lunches at home, with lamb a firm favourite in our house growing up. The lamb was roasted in a little red wine, fennel, nigella seeds and vegetable stock for 10 hours. It was served with winter vegetables roasted in olive oil, mixed herbs and cracked pepper. The minted pea dip was made by blending garden peas, extra virgin olive oil, curry leaves and mint leaves to a chunky paste.
Dessert
Banana and pecan pie, baked in the Epicurious Fluted Pie Dish, served on Caviar Speckle Pebble bowls, along with herbal tea in the Wayfarer Mug.
The day before our dinner party, I ventured up to Somersby on the NSW central coast and went pecan picking, with the plan in mind to make pecan pie. The addition of bananas was to add sweetness from fruit, as opposed to relying on sugar. The fresh pecans were such a fabulous addition to this dish, and all the more satisfying knowing the work which had gone into preparing them for the pie!
And then the left overs…
As with most dinner parties, there is always leftovers which can then be used as meal prep for the upcoming week. Utilising leftover veggies and meat into a delicious warm winter salad. It was served on the Wayfarer dinner plate in pebble, was a fab way to reminisce over dinner table conversations, and ensure there was no wasted food.
A huge thank you to the team at Maxwell & Williams for their support in this post. Please note that from time to time I work with companies who’s products I love, to help spread the word of good nutrition, good times and how to be your healthiest self. I do only ever work with companies who are an authentic fit with my ethos.