30th birthday canapé cookery event - learn how to make canapes in your own home

Dear James,

I just wanted to say a big thank you to you and Gill for such a fantastic day and evening on Saturday. The canapé making was absolutely brilliant and everyone really enjoyed it. The food in the evening was delicious. 

I will certainly be recommending you to people in future and I expect we will be back at the house at some point.

Many many thanks again and please do pass my thanks on to Jill and the 2 waitresses.

Best wishes, 

Victoria

Another cookery event success! We seem to be going cookery event mad - this canapé one was followed by a corporate one 3 days later and the next canapé one is a week on Saturday - rock and roll!

For this one we went for a mix of The Apprentice and Hell's Kitchen - I did a few canapé demonstrations at the beginning to help everyone out, then we split the group into 2 teams in two different places in the kitchen. Then those 2 teams had to split themselves into teams of 2 or 3 to take on one canapé each (we gave them recipes in a recipe booklet), do all the preparation (enough for about 20 portions to have later) and do one good one as a display canapé which would be judged at the end in a grand finale. After this we were going to serve their own creations as canapés mid evening before also serving their evening dinner party. 

With so many people to go round helping out & showing things to, clearing up a bit in between we didn't really get too many pics - usual story, too busy. I'm hoping one of the party might send some ;)

 Cold Canapés

Sushi – vegetable and cooked prawns

Sushi making corner

Using their initiative they came up with a creamy wasabi paste to  add to the sushi. The 2 sushi teams were most excited - they'd both always wanted to know how to make it........

One canapé chef decided to marinade smoked salmon in pickled ginger juice. When I saw it I thought it would make a great wrapping for the sushi. So prawns and spring onion were wrapped in nori and this became the centre - turned out very well!

 Mini beetroot rosti with smoked salmon and dill mustard

Rush hour at the stove. Play nicely now! Beetroot rostis are in progress. I gave away my rosti tips. The last rosti was a large whole pan size which magically disappeared - some people couldn't wait for their canapes.

 Hot Canapés

Saffron risotto balls

See these above next to the ginger-smoked salmon wrapped sushi. They had to make risotto from scratch. When we ran out of space on the stove one pair used the microwave. Innovative! 

One guest took the name of the recipe 'risotto balls' and went off on a tangent...... her results are x-rated. Won bonus points though!

Mini Yorkshire puddings with roast fillet of beef
Everyone's favourite canapé. Think that's definitely one they'll be trying at home - you get the recipe booklet to take home.

Spoon of scallop wrapped in pancetta with asparagus puree and shitake mushroom

Searing scallops

 2 different presentations from the 2 teams. We had to judge on presentation and also taste. The first one looked more messy, but had more puree so you got more of the asparagus flavour. The second looked much better - less is more - but you missed out a bit on the apsaragus hit..... judging's not easy..... :)




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Corporate cookery event - learn how to cook your own dinner party

Results time!

Corporate team building cookery event - cook your own dinner party!

Go team!

Team photo. Eyes left! Someone else was taking their photo next to me on an  iphone - I  tried  the iphone, phew - technology!

 Last night's team building cookery event at  Hill House. "If only we worked together this well back at work" said one. They were cooking their 3 course evening meal from scratch in 2 hours. Everyone seemed to have a great time - it's amazing what you can do in such a short time when you work as a team!

Grilling prawns

We split the group into 3 teams - one team each taking a course each. Starters and desserts being prepared in the main kitchen and the main course in the second kitchen at the back of the house. We had made them a recipe booklet with all the recipes they needed and some plating up tips, so 'all' they had to do was come up with a plan of action and make all the components of their course come together at the right time. Gill and I were on hand to give them guidance and show them techniques, but they were in control.

Making carrot ribbons on the mandolin - no cuts. Note the glass of wine on the table there - cookery events are great!

 With all the preparation ready, it was time for the teams to check the football score quickly before sitting down for dinner. Each of the 3 teams were in charge of bringing their course together so were back in the kitchen to plate it up.

Finishing touches on the starter

Starter

 Trio of fish starters

Crab salad with pink grapefruit, salmon ballottine wrapped in smoked trout and grilled tiger prawns with fennel and apple salad

Prawns are the last thing to go on the starter. "Service!"  "Oh  that's us!"

Main course

 Free range chicken wrapped in pancetta

Garlic roast potato parisienne

Roast carrot ribbons with cumin seeds

Ras-el-hanout roasted cauliflower

The turn of the main course team. "So what do you want me to do?" I ask them "Gill's here too - what  do you want her to do?" There's not much time because the food has to go out hot and they have to decide where everything goes on the plate without it looking overcrowded. They bring it off pretty slickly.

The dessert team - glazing the lemon tart - everyone's favourite job!

Last thing to go on the plate is the orange sorbet - the first thing the dessert team had made  at the start of the evening. It just froze in the nick of time. Special touch on the tirimisu - a nip of amaretto on the top. 

Dessert

Trio of desserts

Glazed lemon tart

Shotglass of amaretto & coffee tirimisu

Homemade orange sorbet

1001 Kitchen tips #68 - Avoiding a cake wreck - how to save a cake mix that has curdled

Looks like my new year's resolution to finish work before midnight is falling by the wayside already - this was made sometime around 1am the other day.

Coconut and passionfruit cake

When a blogger offers their handy hints on the recipe 'Don't overwork the batter' - don't ignore it!
I'm not a pastry chef - as I went to college on my days off I neatly avoided the pastry course, and became more of a larder specialist. Everything in the pastry/ dessert line I've either learned from my mum and grandmothers (they had us cooking from the moment we could stand on a stool at the worktop without falling off it) or I've taught myself. So I tend to learn by trial and error. The other day it was the turn of error to make an appearance.......

Woops - curdled cake mix

I had ignored the recipe and creamed the butter and sugar and then added the eggs - probably too fast (it was late). Adding lemon juice to that doesn't help. 

Don't worry however - all is not lost. There's always an answer:

1. Normally when adding flour it brings the cake mix back to life & it is saved. However this recipe had only a minimum amount of flour - not enough to bind it.
2. Try adding cornflour - like thickening sauces, it can bring cake mixes together. Only a little though - you don't want to make it heavy. Cornflour works better for this than normal flour as it's lighter.
3. Add a little warm water - this can sometimes bring it back - the same way you can save a split hollandaise.
4. If all that fails (it did) - I found you can stick the kenwood mixing bowl over the gas flame for a few seconds  [obvious note - needs to be a stainless steel bowl - the plastic ones have a tendency to melt in a gas flame]. This gives it a little heat which softens the butter a little - this brought the mix back together with a little whisking and saved the cake!

All in a morning's work.

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Surprise birthday party catering in Droitwich, Worcestershire - Childrens party, trio seafood, whole dover sole and assiette of desserts

"Suprise!"
"I've always dreamed of this!..... Getting caterer's in."

It's always good when everyone can keep it a secret right till the last moment. Last Saturday it was for a special birthday in Droitwich and the birthday girl's husband and the rest of the family had kept it a secret right to the moment they turned up back at their house after being out for the afternoon.

Children's tea

Firstly it was time for a (grand)children's sitting at 5:30 before the evening kicked off. 

Macaroni cheese - everyone's favourite comfort food

Finishing touches on the knickerbocker glory

Adults meal

Canapés to start (2 of the 5 below)

Mini burgers in homemade carrot and cumin buns

Spoon of seared scallop, asparagus puree and shiitake mushroom

Starter - trio of seafood starters - Homemade salmon gravadlax [on cauliflower and fennel coleslaw], smoked  halibut and marinated artichoke, spoon of crayfish and mango 

Then for the main course it was a split - some of the family had grilled fillet steak, a couple had asked for whole dover sole (it was the birthday girl's favourite). It's something you hardly ever see on a menu - you have to go to five star hotels & michelin restaurants. Rick Stein would do it. We could do it too. It's been a while - we used to do 10 or so a day at Claridges. Always around 10:50pm we'd get the room service dover sole orders, just as we were due to finish at 11pm - great for a bit of waiter-chef banter. When you were on the fish section Saturday was dover sole day.

Whole dover sole - whole before prepping at the house - head and tail come off , roe taken out,, de-scaled and then washed & dried.

Cooked meuniere - that paella pan has more than one use - these were 1 lb weight each -  so needed the biggest pan possible.  

Deboned after cooking and put back together, with the pan juices strained into the  lemon beurre noisette spooned on top. So delicious. Should have made it 3 ;)

Birthday assiette of dessert. The chocolate writing went down  so well we had to clean the plate around it after the meal so it could be kept!
Shotglass of eton mess, shotglass of raspberry sorbet, strawberry meringue roulade, spoon of sticky toffee pudding and glazed lemon tart

Lime and lychee sorbet

Wooooooshhhhh!

That was the sound of Christmas and New Year flying by.

A wedding on the 23rd, so many Christmas lunch deliveries on the 24th, a fully catered 3 day private booking over Christmas eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day near Cirencester, another Christmas Day event, then straight in to New Year's eve eve and New Year's eve parties. Boom!

This sorbet from Christmas Eve was a hit. Something simple among all the other feasting. Recipe from here. I used rose cordial rather than rosewater - hence the pinkish tinge. Didn't use egg white either - keep it safe as I didn't have pasteurized white on hand. I might have added a bit of gin as well. Maybe.

Too long since I had had lychees - they make this sorbet nice and 'creamy' - try it! Would be a good one for an assiette dessert too.

Assiette of mini desserts and mini cheese courses

Hmm. Shall we go for cheese or dessert? Dessert or cheese? Decisions. Decisions. For this party we did both. On the same plate.

When I found this goats cheese cheesecake with strawberry granita recipe, @michaelnatkin also suggested another of his previous blog posts and I tried the cheese with wine jelly - in this case using Blacksticks Blue and mulled wine jelly (mulled wine is a necessity in December). 

The goats cheesecake I adapted from our normal cheesecake recipe (without the sugar of course), but because of the goats cheese didn't add cornflour - it sets just fine without.

Base

125g Digestive biscuits

50g Unsalted butter

Filling

270g        Cream cheese/ ricotta

330g        Goats cheese

2 1/2        Eggs

120 ml      Creme fraiche

Chopped fresh thyme

(follow the cooking instructions on normal cheesecake recipe link above). I made these in muffin cases - so only took around 20 minutes cooking in oven.)

On the other side was shotglass of eton mess, lemon meringue pie and spoon of sticky toffee pudding.  

You can either eat this the french way - the cheese items before the dessert or the other way round. 

Cooking lessons in your home and team building / hen party cookery events

Looks like the first cookery lesson of 2012 will be on this aga:

It's going to be for the boxer's owner - a birthday present from her husband. We were there last night cooking a birthday meal.

Our whole business is built on things clients have asked for - catered dinner parties in the first place, weekend catering packages, assiette desserts, whole lamb roasts - they've all come from clients' requests. As have cookery lessons, demonstrations and team building events.

Each cookery lesson, demo or cookery / team building event is designed around what the individual clients would like. They have included:

• How to prepare lobster and crab from live to a finished dish demo for a couple of corporate dinners (this was their starter).


• Preparing pigeon (still in feather) and pheasant from scratch to their finished and plated up meal - stag party event. A different team of stags also helped prepare and plate up each course in the kitchen.


• Barbecuing tips - a summer event naturally. Another popular hen party one.


• Cook your own dinner party - popular one for groups of friends and hen parties


• Home cooking lessons - I have taught clients with a range of abilities from beginners  who want learn the basics to advanced cooks who want to give their home cooking more of a proffessional look. During making a series of dishes we normally discuss top tips, practical advice and all the answers to the cooking questions they've always wanted to know.

Ones coming up in January:

• The cooking on a aga one (above)


• A Hell's Kitchen style comp for a hen party - I'm going to be doing a canape demonstration then we're going to be splitting the hens into 2 groups and they're going to be resposible for making their own 5 types of canape for their pre-dinner drinks based on the demo. Then we get to judge the 2 teams at the end. 


• A corporate team building event where we are going to split the group into 3 and each is going to be responsible for a different course - complete with recipes and guidance. Then each team will be back in the kitchen when it comes to plating up their course. 

Contact us for more details.

Birthday dinner preceding a cookery lesson

This dinner party we cooked for last night was for a birthday - during which I announced to the birthday present of a cooking lesson in the home.

Another outing for the seabass and cauliflower poached in saffron with cauliflower gremolata dish  I created on Tuesday

Honey and lavender marinated butterflied leg of lamb, aga cooked dauphinoise potato, french beans  wrapped in pancetta and roasted carrot ribbons

Then it was time for the fake dessert. Family traditions are great aren't they! Apparently this is their family custom - no birthday can go by without a caterpillar cake!

At this point I also made the birthday present announcement - I'l be coming back in January and we're going to be doing a cookery lesson with your aga!

Then time for the real dessert:

Assiette of desserts - each addition being watched carefully should any crumbs drop. This one was:  lemon meringue roulade, shotglass of tirimisu, raspberry shortbread, mini blueberry cheesecake and spoon of crème brûlée  

Is that someone's alarm going off? Nope - the tweeting sound comes from up there! A kitchen full of wildlife is always fun.

Catering for a 40th birthday party - seabass and cauliflower poached in saffron, Grilled calves liver and bacon, Pineapple tarte tatin

The dining room end of the kitchen at Wellacres had been transformed by the time we got there:

We have cooked for this family around the same time every year since 2007 when Wellacres first opened for business. This time it was for 2 meals - last Saturday night, and then this special birthday last night. Great to see them again - among my favourite people to cook for.

As we had cooked for them so many times before it was nice to try something different for them.

Seabass and cauliflower poached in saffron and white wine with  cauliflower gremolata

 Firstly cauliflower was poached in white wine and chicken stock with a healthy amount of saffron just before we left, so the saffron flavour and colour would infuse into the cauliflower. Once we got to the house, I drained that liquid onto seabass fillets (Fillets were largish so 8 did 12). This was poached just before the guests were about to sit down.

Gremolata - fine grated cauliflower, lemon zest, fine grated garlic, chopped parsley. The gremolata sprinkled on top gives you a great fresh flavour.

Grilled calves liver and bacon with creamed potato, grilled organic portobello mushrooms, vine tomatoes and bearnaise sauce

The birthday girl's favourite is calves liver and bacon - so that is what we did! 

The calves liver I started grilling on the grill pan  as they started to eat the starter - last minute is best with calves liver. Where a lot of people go wrong with cooking liver at home is they cook it for ages till it's dry and tough. Much better when it's cooked quick - after grilling I just flashed it through the oven once they had finished the starter. It did create a bit of smoke in the kitchen - but luckily the smoke alarms at that house are very well behaved and we ventilated with the windows. Makes a good bit of 'kitchen theatre' while you're eating though as well as making a better result. 

There's spinach underneath the tomato - healthy living and some chantenay carrots and bearnaise sauce was served on the side - feast!

Pinepple tarte tatin with pina colada ice cream

While the apple or banana tarte tatin are so popular, I also like this pinepple version. So did the guests. When you hear "Wow!" "Oh my God!" and "Yum!" while everyone's eating you know things are going ok. The pina colada ice cream was a hit as well. While I've done malibu and coconut ice cream before, this version was even better. After the hass sour cocktail Ms Marmitelover made at the avocado meal I helped with I discovered a new love of cocktails. Pina colada has to be on the top ten most popular - so why not  turn it into ice cream!

Pina Colada Ice Cream

Combination of my Baileys ice cream recipe and Nigella's pina colada ice cream. The lime juice adds a neccessary zing.

400ml tin coconut milk
500ml double cream
300ml pineapple juice (ish)
200g caster sugar
Juice 3 - 4 limes. Maybe more
Toasted dessicated coconut

Heat a ladle full of the cream with the sugar till sugar melts. No combine with the rest of the ingredients and chill in fridge. Churn in your ice cream machine till it starts freezing - takes a bit longer than other ice creams because of the alcohol content.

Need an ice cream machine? See 2 I like (at opposite ends of the cost scale) here.


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Thai style seabass with pinapple and cucumber salad
Baileys ice cream
1001 Kitchen Tips #22 - Chargrilling tip - I used for the liver so it didn't stick to the pan

Chicken liver parfait with celariac, parsnip and apple remoulade and cranberry chutney

So what is the difference between pate and parfait?

Chicken liver parfait with toasted homemade poppy and sesame seed bread

Well someone had to ask didn't they (it was one of the guests actually who was passing through the kitchen as we were clearing up after the dessert).

A - Pate is more course - and with chicken liver pate normally made with the chicken livers being fried first and blended with all the other ingredients once cooked. Parfait tends to be more moussy (this one certainly was) and smoother, and the livers are blended raw and then cooked. Blending it with the eggs adds a lot of air - air makes it lighter.
Also you get a much better colour with this recipe - i.e. blending the livers with the other ingredients first and poaching it in a bain marie. Once it's cooked it stays a nice pinky colour. Pate made with blending the sauteed livers is more grey/ brown.

Cranberry and pear chutney pre-cooking

We made this for a dinner party last week. The host couldn't make up her mind on a starter, and eventually requested this. It had been a while since I'd made chicken liver parait - and with such a busy few years and a few moves my original recipe from the Lygon Arms days (which was originally from Mosimann in his Dorch days). Anyway - I found this recipe and it worked really well. The above version is wrapped in pancetta and cooked in a terrine mould. Cook it to 74 oC on the temp probe to be safe (see link below).

Link to cranberry and pear chutney here. It's a new Christmas fave.


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Game pate en croute
Smoked salmon pate
Using temperature probe
Some other terrines

1001 Kitchen Tips #67 - Mulled wine tips

Hey look at the time - it's mulled wine o'clock!

Mulled wine - is there anything better to warm you up on a winter's day. Well ok maybe hot chocolate with brandy - but that's another story.

Here's some mulled wine tips I've learned from the expert:

• Numero uno - don't buy those mulled wine spice packs - waste of money. A small amount of spices which you've most likey already got in your store cupboard and an extportionate price because they're brought for presents. Also the spices in the 'mulled spice packs' are normally quite dull in flavour - just use the whole spices in your cupboard.
• Sugar - Mulled wine must contain sugar for complete cold weather salvation. I've often tasted some that other people have made - too sour. It should be warming - like sweet tea. Demerara sugar is best  - bit more flavour than white sugar. Alternatively add honey.
• Secret ingredients? Add a few glasses (or more) of port to your mulled wine. Not only deepens the colour, but also the richness. Gives your mulled wine much more life. 
• Additions - it's all about the additions! We're talking additions of the spirit variety here. Brandy is a starting point - adds a kick. Or calvados adds a similar kick but appley flavour. Also sloe gin gives it another great dynamic. The one I made above contained Cointreau and Creme de cassis. I tried another version with ginger wine last year - very good. 
• Never boil mulled wine - apart from boiling of the alcohol you also dull the flavours - and that's what it should be about
• Tastes even better the day after! If you can manage to leave it alone overnight, cover with cling film and let it infuse. Warm up the next day and it has even more flavour.
• Don't through the fruit away! If you've simmered apples & oranges in the mulled wine to give it flavour let them infuse in it overnight. The next day they make a great dessert with greek yogurt.

Mulled wine recipe - well this is the one I made yesterday at least. Next time probably different.

Red wine - I used 1 1/2 bottles

Port - I used about 1/4 bottle?

Cointreau - few generous glugs

Creme de cassis - few generous glugs

3 Satsumas chopped - didn't have oranges

1 Lemon chopped

Whole cloves - about 6

Whole cinnamon sticks broken up a bit - 2

Generous grating of nutmeg

4 Whole allspice crushed

4 Peppercorns (go easy!)

4 Bay leaves (preferably fresh)

Demerara sugar - to taste. 

Mulled wine jelly - Add 1 sachet of gelatine (or 6 leaves) per pint.

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