Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Terrine of ham hock and broad beans with pea puree
Roast asparagus with chickpeas, almonds and tahini dressing
I served this one at a lovely house near Stroud last Thursday. As the guests had a young girl asleep right next to the dining room they ate in the kitchen instead right behind me. This was the second time I had cooked for them - I remember them going through to the lounge after the meal last year and planning this week away to make sure I could do it - always a good sign!
This is a vegetarian version of the roast asparagus, sauteed tiger prawns and oyster sauce dressing. But now I've tried this version out I'm not sure which I like more. I took the original combination from Heidi's 101 cookbooks, just adapted the presentation. For the dressing I added the lemon juice, but also soy and used red onion instead of garlic. Also some fresh coriander. As the tahini is quite thick the warm water helps to let it down. Roasting asparagus, as I was telling the guests as I served it, is my favourite way of cooking it - boiling it means all the flavour seeps into the water which invariably you throw away. This way all the flavour stays inside. Totally clean plates afterwards, so I think they agreed.......
Related posts
Roast asparagus with sauteed tiger prawns and oyster sauce dressing
1001 Kitchen Tips #48 - Peeling asparagus
Grilled asparagus with parmesan
Grilled asparagus with scallop and prawn fricasse
Asparagus and gruyere tart
Asparagus and hoummous on new potato
Asparagus soup shotglass
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
Assiette of desserts
Mini tarte tatin - apple - as seen here
Mini bread and butter pudding – traditional
Chocolate torte - smaller version of this
Mini blueberry and white chocolate cheesecake - also seen last week
When I received 2 bookings for an all canape wedding reception I thought it was time I extended the canape menu and looked for a few new ideas. Lemon curd bread and butter pudding has always been a favourite - and there's always another use for butter dishes. The tarte tatin works really well in the small version too.
Bad lighting I know. A bit of fiddling with the bulb had made the kitchen light work in the first place, though after the dinner party we cooked by candlelight for 32 during a power cut in January, one dud light seemed like nothing.....
Related posts:
Other assiette of desserts we have served
Our facebook assiette of dessert photo album
An all canape wedding reception
Date and walnut cupcakes
"and what was the date?"
"Friday 5 Mar to Sunday the.... 7th"
"This weekend?"
Yes. Already a busy weekend there was a last minute party with 4 days to go. Always like a challenge.
This a little something to go with the buffet lunch delivery on the Saturday.
Carpaccio of courgette with pickled mushrooms, rocket, parmesan and beetroot dressing
Also nice as courgette noodles with orange zest.
Related posts
Pickled mushrooms
1001 Kitchen Tips #56 - What do you do with fresh pasta if you haven't got a drying rack?
Thursday, March 04, 2010
Pink peppercorn cured trout
Monday, March 01, 2010
An all canape reception for a post-wedding celebration
"Do we have to sit down for the main course? The canapes are so good we could just keep going with those all night" quipped the guests on 9 January at Rectory Park. Well this is what we did 2 days ago for a post wedding celebration - an all canape event with savoury and dessert canapes, and there is another one booked for April 10th too. If you're going to do it why not do it in style?!
As a large number of the party were vegetarian (almost half) I just changed a few of the canapes to account for this, and also so they would all be different (rather than using the same ingredients). There was also one guest with an allergy to raw onions & chives - so this also had to be taken into account.
And as the Coach House has wireless broadband I took along the laptop and uploaded some photos of the canapes as we sent them - http://twitpic.com/photos/MyCotswoldfood
Cold canapés
Avocado and vegetable rice paper wraps – NO SPRING ONION
Asparagus and walnut barquette
Baked new potatoes with Oxford Blue cheese, broad beans and rocket
I really like the way this turned out - simple yet very tasty, the essence of a good canape. Normally I do the baked new potatoes with smoked trout mousse and asparagus, but for this event tried out a new vegetarian version. As they had asparagus with the previous canape I found this one and used Oxford Blue instead of gorgonzola, charlotte potatoes instead of the purple ones and watercress instead of rocket.
I sent the first plate out and it was back empty in about 20 seconds. Rather popular.
Beetroot rosti with cream cheese and beluga lentils – NO RAW CHIVES/ ONION
It's always good when you try out things for the first time on the day. No room for error. Started making these at 2:30pm on the day - always
best to be fresh.
Such an amazing colour when you slice the raw beetroot and potato on the madolin. Used my trusty rosti method then made small bite size individual ones. Heat is everything with these - too low and they'll be a soggy mash, too high and they'll just burn on the bottom - it's somewhere in between, practice makes perfect.
When I first heard looked at Johanna's beluga lentil post last November I was caught up thinking of beluga caviar (how much of that did we serve in my time at Claridges?). So while I was thinking of toppings for this - cream cheese and beluga seemed the obvious choice, just beluga lentils rather than beluga caviar - I've really got into beans & pulses over the last year (slight difference in price too). It really seemed to work. As fast as I made them they vanished and I ended up using everything I had made - even the back up.
Sweet potato scones with sweetcorn chutney - recipes as seen here last year
King prawns with horseradish cocktail sauce
Hot canapés
Scallops wrapped in pancetta with pesto mayonnaise
Coconut and coriander fishcakes with curry mayonnaise – CURRY MAYO NO RAW ONION/ CHIVE etc
Mini Yorkshire puddings with grilled fillet steak and horseradish
Harissa marinaded lamb skewers with hommous – NO RAW ONION IN HOUMMOUS
Cocktail chipolatas with mustard mash
Anne Meadows is currently making pork and leek sausages at Home Farm as well as their regular ones - and I think these taste much better. Only thing is the pork and leek were only made into larger sausages rather than chipolatas, so I got those, twisted them in half to make them into cocktail sasuage size and cut them in half. It was worth it though
- tastes so good.
Dessert canapés
Mini pecan pie
One of last things to bake - about 3:30pm. Lay all your trust in
a Nigella recipe. They turned out great - even better than expected. Heated again before they were served they filled the kitchen with a wonderful caramel aroma. My favourite canape of the night - but I'm biased.
Mini blueberry and white chocolate cheesecake
These had turned out so well as a dessert version for the buffet I did last year that I added them on as a canape as well made in canape muffin cases.
Made the night before (well night into morning - the last tray below went in the oven at 2:30am), I used this tip again so they don't stick to the cases. Topped with candied lemon zest.
And yes - we did move them to a clean plate just after a quick photo call.....
Mini tarte tatin
Tarte tatin was another example of it'll be alright on the night. When I first made it over 3 years ago I was doing it for the first time for a party that evening. And it turned out so well. It rapidly became my favourite dessert to make - what can be better than caramelised apple? Bite-size ones like this were lush.
- See behind the scenes photos of the team in action here on facebook
Related posts
Other wedding events we have done previously


