Sometimes you gotta go with the first thing that springs into your mind, and this was definitely the case with Bernhard and his C dinner.

What do you cook for a C-themed dinner? Well, C foods, obviously. Not Seafood, but Cee Foods.

Turns out there are quite a lot of those. In fact, once you start coming up with them, it’s hard to stop. So here we go:

  • Cubed Codfish with Corona-beer batter seasoned with Cumin and Coriander
  • Cucumber, Chicory, & Cherry tomato salad with Croutons and Caesar dressing
  • Ciabatta bread with a Cretan olive oil, Chilli & Cane sugar dip
  • Chilli con Carne with Couscous, soured Cream and Chives
  • Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies, accompanied by:
  • Ceylon tea, Beduin-style with Cardamom & Cinnamon

We washed all this loveliness down with C drinks, of course:

  • Corona beer
  • Cocacola
  • Canti Prosecco
  • Chateau Carbonac red wine

And because that’s how we rock, Dorottya, Bernhard and I wore C clothes:

Bernhard sported a Dallas Cowboys hoodie, Dorottya wore a Catsuit & Cardigan, and I wore a Collared shirt and a Cardigan.

and we had a Cactus on the table, and a Chopin playlist playing in the background.

Now let’s get to those recipes, shall we?

Cubed Codfish with Corona-beer batter seasoned with Cumin and Coriander:

This is basically the fish part of fish&chips; as this was only a starter, for 4 diners all we used was:

  • 2 Cod fillets, cut into large cubes
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 2 teaspoons medium curry powder
  • ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1 ½ cups beer, or more to taste
  • salt

Salt and pepper the Cod cubes

Prepare the batter: Combine flour, egg, curry powder, and black pepper in a bowl. Whisk in 1 cup of beer until smooth. Add up to 1/2 cup additional beer, if the batter is too thick.

Heat a cup of vegetable oil in a small pot

Coat each cube in the batter and plonk in the gently simmering oil. Move them around with a wooden spoon to make sure they fry evenly and don’t stick to each other (Deep frying at a lower temperature worked much better, as in high heat the batter scorches before the fish is cooked).

Transfer to a dish padded with kitchen paper to soak the excess oil

Serve immediately, with wedges of lemon to squeeze on top (if you make this as the central dish, I’d make a tartar sauce to go with it).

Cucumber, Chicory, & Cherry tomato salad with Croutons and Caesar dressing:

To give the salad an elegant look, we assembled the chicory leaves around the salad bowl first, then added the cucumber discs and halved cherry tomatoes in the middle. Then we put the croutons on top (homemade: simply dice a good, dark bread and put in a medium-hot oven for about half an hour, in one layer).

Caesar dressing: recipe by Once Upon a Chef

We added the Caesar dressing at the last moment so the croutons wouldn’t get soggy.

Ciabatta bread with a Cretan olive oil, Chilli & Cane sugar dip (I think this was my favourite part of this dinner):

Slice a loaf of fresh Ciabatta and place in a bowl.

To make the Dip:

De-seed and finely chop 3 jalapeño peppers. Put a teaspoon of olive oil in small pan at medium/high heat, and add the peppers and 2 tablespoons of cane sugar. Keep stirring to prevent everything from sticking together. Add dry chilli flakes. Keep stirring until the fresh chilli is soft. Pour into a small bowl and add olive oil.

Chilli con Carne served with Couscous, soured Cream and Chives (As this was Bernhard’s gig, and his interpretation of the dish, you’ll note it’s made in the Texan tradition – without beans):

Finely chop a large onion and a large bell pepper. Sauté in a large pan. Add salt, 2 tbsp cayenne pepper and 3 tbsp paprika.

In a separate pan, sauté 2 finely chopped carrots with 2 tsp of sugar until they start to brown.

Finely chop 8 chilli peppers and add to the onion & bell pepper. Stir.

Add 1/2 kg of 10% fat minced beef; When mostly cooked, taste and add salt if necessary.

Reduce heat. Spread the mix evenly across the pan. Add water till it’s barely covered. Add a cube of beef stock. Stir, and let simmer for 30 min. Add the sautéed carrots.

Reduce to low heat and cook gently for another 30 min minimum (The longer the better, just make sure it doesn’t dry & burn).

Add some chopped fresh mint and a squirt of lime.

To make the Couscous:

Put a tablespoon of oil in a small pot on medium heat, add a cup of dry couscous and a bit of salt and stir. Add just-under 2 cups of boiling water and stir once. Cover with a tight lid, remove from heat, and let sit for 5 minutes. Then open and fluff up with a fork.

Put a serving of Couscous in each diner’s bowl, and a serving of Chilli con Carne on top.

Serve with sour cream and chopped chives on the side (we needed that cream. Bernhard’s chilli packed a punch!).

For dessert, we made chewy chocolate chip cookies; We used this excellent recipe by Sally’s Baking Recipes on YouTube, but halved the amount of sugar (it sounded wayyy too sweet, and judging by the result – this was the right call). Don’t skip over leaving the dough in the fridge (for a few hours or even overnight) – it’s what makes the cookies come out chewy after baking!

We served these delicious, moist cookies with Ceylon tea, brewed in the Beduin style:

Gently boiled for 20 minutes with a few cardamom pods and a stick of cinnamon, and sweetened: this gives a strong, rich, syrupy tea, best drunk in small glasses or cups.

This was a fantastic and fun meal to both make and consume.

Idit asked for a jar of the olive oil-chilli-sugar dip to take home, and the chilli con carne has since become a staple in our household, satisfying our boys’ love for both meat and spice…

Oh, and as it was just Bernhard’s and my birthdays, Dorottya brought a Cake!