The Cambridge University Conservative Association is legendary for the scale of it’s parties, in addition to it’s high levels of political activity. The termly white-tie-preferred Chairman’s Dinner, to celebrate the term and see the retiring chairman off in style, has been held in Emmanuel College’s Old Library for a number of terms now.
This term, with Jeremy Hunt MP as guest, the meal began with a Goat’s Cheese, wrapped in filo pastry that was lined with basil leaves: served on a small amount of mixed roast vegetables, it was fantastic and started to absorb that pre-dinner champagne. Sadly, the fish course – a salmon and crab meat timbale – was disappointing. Fortunately, the 2006 Flagstone chenin blanc “Cellar Hand” was on hand to distract from the fish!
The main course consisted of slices of roast sirloin of beef, with a red wine gravy and served with green beans, superbly sweet parsnips, and crunchy roast potatoes. This came with a rather nice Estramadura (Cortello 2005), which I enjoyed with the main course and the dessert: the surprising, but delightful pear ang ginger tart.
The dinner was rounded off with port, coffee, mints, and – of course – toasts, speeches and singing. What a decadent way to pass the time
[...] It was the second year running that I’d cooked our little group a christmas dinner: 4 courses, again, and a lot of fun. I started off with filo-wrapped goats cheese and basil – an idea stolen from Emmanuel. The main course was a corn-fed chicken, and two pheasants: the latter being £6.50 for a brace on the market! The previous day, I’d made bread sauce, cranberry sauce, pigs-in-blankets, and sausagemeat stuffing. The whole course being completed with goose-fat roasted potatoes and parsnips and, of course, sprouts. [...]