Dinner on the move - a meal in six places

All the recipes, a prep and timing chart, tips and wine matches for hosting a progressive dinner party (maybe this weekend?)

What should we cook this weekend? What about a big catch up over a walking (or progressive) dinner? This is my absolute, all time favourite way to entertain/hang outl; a meal over a bunch of small courses culminating in one big sit down one. Here’s the menu, here are the recipes and a bunch of photos and tips from our recent exercise in the joy that is a walking dinner.

Menu

Station 1 - Gin and elderflower cocktail

Station 2 - Freshly shucked Signature Oysters via Printhie Wine Bar with Swift Cuvee.

Station 3 - Pork Belly Betel Leaves with Printhie Topography Andesite (a blend of Riesling, Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer - my favourite wine and match of the day)

Station 4 - Watermelon and feta bites

Station 5 - Focaccia, cheese, salami and prosciutto with Printhie Topography Pinot Noir.

Station 6 - Prawn and peach wonton cups with Em’s grapefruit and lemon sherbert cocktail.

Station 7 - Poached salmon with spicy mayo, nuoc cham slaw and cucumber feta salad with Printhie Topography Chardonnay.

My friend Emily and I share a birthday (December 30) and three years ago we decided to get a bunch of friends together for a mini ‘Forage’ here on the farm. I was to do the food, Em and her husband Ed the wine (which worked well because their family business is Printhie Wines, makers of my favourits).

Forage is one of the main events in our region’s annual food festival, a walking lunch through vineyards and orchards and we’ve both been involved in it at certain times through our farms and work.

So. We decided to do a little birthday Forage at home (= Borage) and this year was our third. Borage is one of my favourite days, a chance to share our farm with friends, to spend the afternoon and evening talking, walking, eating and catching up properly with everyone.

Yes it’s a bit of prep but all so worth it. Also, you don’t need to do it all yourself, enlist your friends to take a station each, delegate, share and slice the ‘work’ and costs into manageable pieces.

We did our Borage here on the farm, following a path Tim slashed with the tractor. You can do this in your neighbourhood, at a local park, wherever you fancy.

See below for more tips on hosting your own ‘borage’ or walking dinner. Plus all the recipes both in the post and collected in a downloadable pdf. There’s also a chart to help with prep and timing.

Happy cooking, walking and celebrating,

Sophie x

Ps; This is quite a long post - your email might cut it off, so probs best to read it in the Substack app or just click on the subject line above and it will take you there for the full show…

I included a chapter dedicated to Borage/aka walking dinners in my book What Can I Bring, with all the recipes we made for our first of these events. Here below are some tips (with a few extra additions) from that chapter.

• Start with the ‘route’ and then decide how many stops and where. You could go from house to house in your street, neighbourhood or building? Or perhaps pick a park or beach (everyone would just have to carry their own meal but that’s totally doable!). My dream is to one day do (part of) the Snowies Alpine Walk with everyone carrying their ‘station’ in a backpack. Bags be number one.

• Allocate everyone a stop each. Or, if you’re a big group, put two people together per stop, one to look after food and one drinks (or however they choose to organise it).

• Choose an umbrella theme for everyone to come under: a style of cuisine (French, Moroccan, Japanese, your favourite), an era (the seventies) or book. This helps things flow nicely.

• If doing this in summer and outside, buy more ice than you think you’ll need. Borrow insulated coolers so that each ‘stop’ has a cooler full of ice ready to load up.

• Charge your solar lights at least two days out!

• Label every ingredient with what it is and what ‘station’ it’s destined for. Get out however many baskets/chiller bags/eskies or whatever and stick a note on each with what station it’s for. Pack all ingredients into the assigned carrier. Don’t forget serving utensils and lots of ice bricks.

• Enlist the kids to help go ahead and set up and come behind and pack down each station.