TAPAS n TAROT

The Sacred Chef enjoyed a fantastic night of tapas and tarot, cooking and reading for seven delightful and very gorgeous women on a hen’s night in Montville, last Friday night. The girls had rented Malakita, the most sublime holiday house I have ever had the fortune to cook in – with a very well equipped gourmet kitchen and just a beautifully designed building overall. Arriving with a message from the gatekeeper, for the girls to stay out of the chook pen, I was not sure if this would prove to be prophetic or not, but Sarah had a passion for good food (she had booked me after all) and had been on the search for eggs with really orange natural yokes.

I was made welcome with gusto and found myself, like the great god Pan, surrounded by blonde nymphs as I cooked and created my tapas menu for the night. Cameras were clicking and the sweat was upon my brow, as I battled manfully with the state of the art oven and cooktop (eventually eliciting the help of one of the nymphs who was so much more au fait with the modern technological gizmo), rapidly acclimatising to an unfamiliar kitchen is one of the challenges of the work.

Beautiful seafood from Southern Cross Fisheries was unpacked and released into pans of garlic, chilli and olive oil. Maldon sea salt was sprinkled over plump prawns and opening mussels, amid splashes of white wine and lemon juice. Mediterranean smells filled the kitchen and gleaming white platters were soon painted with real live tapas!

The menu:

• olive tapenade on crusty sour dough bread
• thinly sliced Chorizo sausage & goat’s cheese pastries
• king prawns in garlic & fino sherry
• mussels in chilli, tomato & wine
• scallops grilled in shells with fresh lime & white wine
• petit red capsicums filled with pork & veal mince
• leek & olive pastries
• Portuguese chicken
• asparagus, pistachio & rocket salad
• chicken mince croquettes with tomato & basil coulis

These beautiful women, though svelte, had appreciative appetites and loved the dishes – I was in chef’s heaven as I did a little dance and packed away my implements and cleaned up. The nymphs had helped me to the car, both unloading and reloading, and were delightful to serve – a full moon blessing in disguise as a job!

Pan then transformed into Apollo and brought out the tarot cards, from the earth to the heavens, and starting with the bride to be we moved to a suitable location for the reading. Not to be party poopers it was decided to do the reading with all her friends in attendance and a circle of energy was formed around us (I leave it up to the person having the reading to decide on how private they wish the reading to be). Being a hen’s night the readings were of course about the impending marriage and relationships – and the first card was the Knight of Cups – a most suitable indicator for the beginning of a journey of love.