Dinner Party Cooking with Total Greek Yoghurt

I always love being invited to attend an event put on by Total Greek Yoghurt! They are usually fun and this was no exception.  We met at L'Atelier Des Chef at their Wigmore Street location on a cold wintry evening which made the welcome champagne very welcome indeed!

We were there to cook with Paul Merrett, Chef and Total Greek Yoghurt fanatic and to produce and eat a easy and effective dinner party menu. Each recipe used Total Greek Yoghurt which reinforces its versatility and that it is not just for breakfast with your muesli.

A friendly little fellow!!

All of the ingredients were weighed out and ready for us to get stuck in.

 

First of all Paul talked us through each recipe and then was around to see that we kept on the right track.

Our starter was Seared Squid with Choritzo, Spiced Chickpea Puree and Corriander Total Greek Yoghurt. This was quick and easy and a good tip was to get it all prepped before you start. I often have both squid and choritzo in my  fridge & freezer so this is certainly on the menu plan. It was a perfect flavour combination along with smoked paprika and harissa paste, cumin seeds, chickpeas and of course Total Greek Yoghurt.

The main course we prepared was a Crusted Rack of Lamb with Baba Ganouche and Roasted Sweet Potato Salad. Amongst the ingredients for the sweet potato salad was crumbled feta cheese, pomegranite seeds, rocket and oil and balsamic vinegar.

The lamb was really tender and tasty but a tad too rare for my liking, a little more colour and it would have been perfect.

Main course ready to serve

The pudding used fresh spring rhubarb which was sweet and tender and coupled with marscapone and greek yoghurt made a visually beautiful and tasty pudding which to end our DIY dinner!

The finished team effort pudding. Tasted absolutely lovely too!!

The recipe for the syllabub is below just in time for the start of the English rhubarb season:-

Rhubarb & Greek Yoghurt Syllabub with Poached Rhubarb

Makes 5 generous portions

Ingredients

For the poached Yorkshire rhubarb:

250g rhubarb

75g caster sugar

For the syllabub

400g TOTAL Greek Yoghurt

200g Mascarpone

2 vanilla pods scraped

250g rhubarb puree

25ml sweet white wine

Icing sugar to sweeten

Method

1.       First make the rhubarb puree so that it can cool. Chop the rhubarb up into even small pieces and put in a pan.

2.       Sprinkle over the sugar and pour in the sweet white wine slowly bringing to a simmer.

3.       Blend to a puree and cool.

4.       Whisk the Greek yoghurt, mascarpone and vanilla until light and fluffy – this is best on an electric mixer but possible by hand.

5.       Fold in the rhubarb puree.

6.       Sweeten further if necessary by adding icing sugar.

7.       Pipe into a cocktail or trifle glass.

8.       Top with the poached rhubarb.

Many thanks to Total Greek Yoghurt for inviting me to this event.