GIVEAWAY: Share the warmth.

On Saturday night I hosted a Sedgwick’s Old Brown dinner party at my house with some friends. The whole theme of the night was ‘Share the Warmth’ so I asked another friend of mine Jono Hall, who is a brilliant chef to come on over and cook with this idea in mind. He made us a 4-course meal, which was super delicious, I’m still dreaming about the doughnut STARTER. Yes the starter was made up of mini doughnuts, cream, melted chilli chocolate, pomegranates and a shot of Sedgwick’s Old Brown on the side, I would of been happy to just have that for supper, in fact at this stage I was wishing none of the guests had arrived so I could of just ploughed through all 10 servings.

We then had Sherry Flambé Livers on Toast, Hunters Pie with Green Beans and Asparagus and ended on a Boozy Marshmallow, Grape and Buried Chocolate Bread drizzled with Custard and Sedgwick’s Old Brown. We were all stuffed and happy, like little piggies in a pen somewhere on a farm in Illovo.

We then drank a whole bottle of Old Brown and proceeded to chat about important matters plaguing the world and Kanye West. Ha.

 I also bought some cool gifts to giveaway at my little swaray, thanks to Sedgwick’s. I bought myself a mini iPad (sometimes you just have to spoil yourself), then I gave away a brand spanking new iPod to one of my guests (Barry won it) and then I thought I would share the warmth a bit more and buy one of you guys a black iPod shuffle. Anyone keen for one?

All you have to do is:

1. Leave me a comment on my blog.

2. Tweet at me @miss_luckypony letting me know that you want it – make sure you use the #sharethewarmth hashtag (this is very important).

Easy right? And this is going to be a super quick giveaway too. I’m going to randomly choose a winner on Friday (28th of June). Anyone is free to enter as long as you #sharethewarmth 

I’m also going to share 3 more things with you guys – recipes for 3 of the dishes we had on the night. They were all delicious and you should totally try them out. Enjoy.

*Also if you are looking for something fun and unusual to do, Jono runs a cool pop up restaurant called Food Hall, where he prepares delicious food based on a theme and you can buy a seat (or 2, 3, 4) at the table and enjoy it. He is a really good cook and these nights are super fun, so you should totally check them out. 

Chilli hot chocolate cups with mini doughnuts

Ingredients – serves 10

15 Woolies mini-donuts cut in half so that you have 30 halves.
2 slabs chilli dark chocolate
1 slab salted chocolate
1 cup of milk
Seeds of 1 pomegranate
About a cup of cream
1 shot of Sedgwick’s Old Brown per serving

What to do:

Get a pot filled with about 2 cups water on the stove and bring to a boil, then bring the heat down so that it’s simmering gently. Put a flame-proof bowl over the pot and break in the slabs of chocolate. Once they start to melt, begin to gently whisk the liquid chocolate together so that it becomes glossy. Slowly add milk while whisking so that you start to have a thickish liquid that feels like super-indulgent drinking hot chocolate. Taste it at this point, if there isn’t enough of a chilli bite, shake in a few drops of Tabasco sauce (seriously).

In ten espresso cups, pop in the churros/farturas/or three sliced donut halves, pour in the chilli chocolate until about three-quarters full, top up with a bit of pouring cream, sprinkle over some pomegranate seeds and serve with a shot of Sedgwick’s Old Brown on the side.

 Sherry flambé livers on toast

Ingredients – serves 10

4 calf livers, sliced
Large glug of Sedgwick’s Old Brown
Olive oil
2 red onions, thinly sliced
1 red chilli, de-seeded, chopped fine
2 cloves of garlic, chopped fine
1 tbsp redcurrant jelly
1 tbsp got English mustard
a couple of shakes of Worcestershire sauce
a good splash of red wine vinegar
Salt
Pepper
Cream

Ciabatta bread and thinly-sliced butter lettuce to serve.

What to do

Heat some olive oil in a pan and then get the onions, chilli and garlic in there to fry. When they’re all releasing their smells beautifully, turn down the heat and let them soften and caramelise. The longer you let them gently get sticky, the better the flavour.
Once they’re good and done, scrape the onion out the pan and set aside. Put another splash of olive oil in the same pan, turn the heat up full and let the pan get smoking hot. Then add the livers. Stir them about until browned up nicely (should happen very quickly) then add the Sedgwick’s Old Brown (at this point you can totally light it for a proper flambé, but it’s not essential). It should bubble up and thicken slightly, and as soon as it’s started to reduce a bit, add the vinegar and continue to stir. Then chuck in the onions and carry on stirring, then add the Worcestershire sauce, mustard and red currant jelly (yes, and keep stirring) until the livers are starting to swim in a rich brown sauce. Lower the heat, season with salt and a couple of generous grinds of black pepper, then finally stir in the cream. Let the livers bubble gently in the cream for a minute or two, then serve immediately on the lettuce and crusty hot toast.

 Boozy marshmallow, grape and buried chocolate bread with custard and Old Brown

Ingredients – serves 10

1 kg cake flour
7g dry yeast
650 ml milk
4 tbsp honey
2 tsp vanilla essence
Marshmallows
1 slab dark chocolate
Seedless red grapes
Sedgwick’s Old Brown

What to do:
In a pot on a very low heat, warm the milk, vanilla essence and honey together, gently stirring it into each other. Meanwhile, combine the yeast and flour and sift to make sure it’s stirred right in.
Empty the flour and yeast onto a clean work-surface, make a well in the centre and start to add the milk and honey mixture, working in the flour as you go. You should start to get a very sticky, elastic dough – which will make a lovely glossy ball after about 5 – 10 minutes of kneading. Pop the dough in a bowl, cover with a wet cloth and let it prove for about an hour. Once that’s done, take the dough and work it into a square, fairly deep oven-proof dish and start to push in marshmallows, grapes and pieces of broken up chocolate. Really get them in there and make sure they evenly spread throughout the bread dough. Then let this prove again for another hour or so until risen once more. Put the bread in an oven, preheated to 180 degrees and bake for 25 minutes or so, or until crusty and brown. Once out the oven, shake over a splash of Sedgwick’s Old Brown and serve piping hot with custard.