Seven Course Summer Heaven

Every so often I am lucky enough to meet a couple for whom their special day is quite literally all about the food. Here is an example of a seven course degustation menu which I took great delight in creating for Daniel and Frank.

Some course choices are personal to their story, some were inspired by their travels, some were just an excuse for a seasonal treat. Everything was utterly delicicious and enjoyed over the course of a long midsummer's evening by sixty special guests in The Orangery, Holland Park.

Canapés

Wasabi seared beef and watermelon with pickled ginger and coriander

Ricotta cakes with oven roasted plum tomatoes and basil

Fresh herb blinis simply topped with crayfish tails and a spaghetti of cucumber

First Wine:

Lugana Doc Trentino, Tenuta Rovegelia, Italy

Amuse Bouche

Demi tasse of chilled grape and white almond soup

Starter

Ham hock ravioli with pea veloute and truffle oil

served in a saturn bowl

Second Wine:

Chablis, Henri La Fontaine, France

Fish

Stuffed sardine

filled with pine nuts, brioche, chervil and raisins

Sorbet

Lemon, parsley and gin sorbet

served in saucer champagne glass with lemon slices

Third Wine:

Gigondas Domaine de la haute Marone, France

Main

Guinea fowl filled with spinach and ricotta

on smoked garlic mash, wilted spring greens and tarragon jus

Cheese

Trio of European cheese

with membrillo, grapes and walnut bread

Dessert

Sicilian lemon cheesecake with macadamia crust,

lime mousse with frosted berries and glazed tarte au citron.

Aperitif

White sambuca shots with coffee beans

To Finish

Fine tea, cafetiere coffee and fresh mint tea

Hand made petits four

In Season - British Asparagus

Be quick! You've not got long to enjoy this superfood delicacy. Asparagus has a teasingly short and notoriously unpredictable season which falls sometime between May and June depending on the fickle British weather. I am reliably informed by the British Asparagus Growers Association website that the 2010 season is well and truly here.

Appropriately perhaps for an aphrodisiac, the key to ensuring the best flavour is tenderness rather than length or girth. Colour is a good indicator, seek light green with closed tips and a hint of purple. British Asparagus is a hand grown crop which requires a huge investment of time and patience for a relatively low yield. Cooking it however, is almost totally the opposite case!

 - Simple: Steamed with a splash of olive oil, black pepper and parmesan

 - Hot: Fresh asparagus soup with crème fraiche and sage and parmesan bread

 - Brunch: Asparagus bundles tied with chives served with a vanilla and pomegranate mayonnaise

 - Fish: Asparagus icecream with salmon toasts - recipe here!

 - Main: Pan roast asparagus with rare roast beef, wild mushroom jus, thyme and talegio potatoes

 - Summer Buffet: Prosciutto or Parma ham involtini of chargrilled asparagus

 - Stuffed: Baby Pousin with fresh asparagus stuffing, lemon risotto, French beans and tarragon jus

 - Vegetarian: Fresh handmade asparagus ravioli with herb emulsion and micro shoots

Westminster's Vote Winning BBQ

What do you think of when you think of Westminster? Politics? The election? When I think of Westminster I immediately think of prime Scottish beef.

No, not the PM! I mean delicious meat sizzling on a barbeque. Why? Because for the last eight years, summer at Westminster Abbey Gardens for Bovingdons means the privilege of catering at the annual Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board event (formerly the Meat and Livestock Commission).

As you can imagine, this showcase offers the biggest variety and best possible quality of this country's meat - Scottish beef, Welsh lamb, English sausages... every single ingredient (including the sauces) must be of British origin, the meat must be labelled and fully traceable almost right to the animals name. My yearly challenge as appointed caterer is to surpass my last menu.  It's an irresistible brief for Chef David and I. We have just pitched our ideas for 2010 but my lips are sealed! Instead, here are just some of the items from the 2009 barbeque to tempt the carnivore in you.

Canapes

Seared fillet of British beef in little Yorkshire puddings with horseradish cream

Crisp new potatoes filled with dry cure smoked bacon and English blue cheese

Little spiced lamb and aubergine falafel

BBQ

Conisbees Cumberland pork sausages

Home and hand made beef burgers with chilli and fresh parsley

Shoulder of lamb, marinated in garlic and lavender yoghurt

British pork shoulder steaks with apricot glaze
Sticky BBQ lamb slices

Salads

Minted new potato mayonnaise

Roasted vegetable with red onions, purple basil and barley

Garden leaf and herb salad with rape seed oil dressing

Tomato and cucumber salad with Bovingdons honey dressing

Condiments

Good grain mustard

Home made mayonnaise

Good horseradish sauce

Bovingdons Famous BBQ sauce

Dessert

Mini waffle cones of assorted sorbets

Bowls of delicious Eton Mess with strawberries and cream

Cheese

English, Scottish and Welsh Cows cheese

with crostini fingers and oatcakes 

Breads

A selection of rustic country breads made with Doves flour

(and yes, of course the full menu includes a fair proportion of vegetarian, Halal and special diet considerations)

In Season - Winchester Watercress

It’s only a couple of weeks until the Alresford Watercress Festival which takes place just a few miles down the A3 from me. During a day of community celebration, the elected Watercress King and Queen travel down the main street atop a horse and cart and distribute the first of the season's harvest to festival goers.

Iron rich, vitamin fuelled, nose twistingly peppery and utterly delicious, watercress is often overlooked as an ingredient despite its similarity to rocket. For the best of the crop look for fat clusters of wet, deep green leaves and eat as soon after picking as possible (it is notoriously perishable)

Here are some delicious watercress menu ideas for your next event...
- Starter: Gingered watercress soup with toasted sesame seeds
- Main: Duo plate of watercress blinis with smoked trout and cucumber vermicelli
- Salad: Organic watercress with roasted sweet potato and toasted walnuts
- Canapé: Seared fillet of beef in Yorkshire puddings with watercress hollandaise
- Fish: Roast monkfish on crushed potatoes topped with watercress
- Afternoon tea: Finger sandwiches of wafer honey baked ham, cream cheese and watercress

How to Throw a Corporate Ceilidh

Last week marked Burns Night and, as regular readers of our old newsletters will know, a time that we highly recommend you consider as an alternative for festive entertaining. Deck your chosen venue in tartan, with heather floral displays on every table and wow your guests with a Chieftain Haggis ceremony, lots of whisky tots and (of course) a piper. This menu was created for challenging clients who needed us to ensure that every ingredient of an otherwise traditional menu reflected their proud Scottish heritage and include plenty their own brand of premium whiskey.

Address to a Haggis

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,

Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!

Aboon them a' ye tak your place,

Painch, tripe, or thairm:

Weel are ye wordy of a grace

As lang's my arm.

Canapés

Oatcakes topped with Lanark blue cheese and fig

Venison sausages with port amd redcurrant sauce

Filo tartlets with Finnan haddock mousse

Starter

Smoked Scottish salmon, baby salad leaves

with homemade brown bread, Ballantine’s butter and lemon wedge

Haggis

 wi’ bashit neeps an’ champit tatties

Main

 Roast sirloin of Scottish beef, roast potatoes, braised red cabbage,

fine green beans and a rich whisky jus

Dessert

 Pear and thyme tart
served with whisky cream

Afters

 Fresh teas and tisanes

with tablet and whisky truffles

Simon Says "Flaunt it at Fifty"

During the Naughties, it was the footballers wives who helped bring a new meaning to the term "extravagant party". In the TwentyTeens, my instinct (and my bookings diary) is telling me that it will be successful men in their forties and fifties who will dominate and redefine the entertaining scene as we know it. In the next twelve months the likes of Bono, Gary Lineker, Jeremy Clarkson, Jonathan Ross, Hugh Grant and Simon Le Bon will all be looking to hit five-oh in style and will no doubt set a high bar (literally) for anyone turning 50 between now and 2015 (take note Piers Morgan, Matthew Freud, Noel Gallagher, David Cameron etc).

Leading the charge is Simon Cowell whose fiftieth birthday extravaganza at Wrotham Park was a watershed moment for the private party industry. Since then, I've noticed a marked rise in enquiries from discerning gentlemen who know what they want, are proud of their success and want to celebrate their half century accordingly. Simon opted to serve his guests with mini bowls of comfort food: prawn and lobster martini, chicken soup (with the infamous alphabet spaghetti), shepherd’s pie, fish and chips followed by apple pie, rice pudding and bread and butter pudding. I was recently asked to create an equally as impressive yet slightly more flambouyant menu in honour of two successful film directors holding a joint 50th birthday party in a transparent, pink carpeted marquee beside their candlelit barn conversion and moonlit swimming pool.

Canapes

Ricotta cakes with slow roasted vine tomatoes and basil wafers

Cucumber boxes of fresh feta, mint, parsley and purple shiso cress

Watermelon cubes with seared beef and pickled ginger

Brioche croutes with caramalised apple and Foie Gras

Crisp bread cups with quails egg Caesar salad

Starter

Chermoula red mullet on roasted baby fennel

with lemon yoghurt and chive oil

Duo plate of roasted tomato tatin

with a parmesan basket of yellow cherry tomato, feta and olives

Main

Slow roasted fillet of beef wrapped in Prosciutto

served with oregano polenta, fine green beans and rich burgundy sauce

Involtini of chargrilled aubergines

with spinach, goats cheese and salsa verde

Dessert

Vanilla panna cotta with English raspberries and Grappa
served on a square, pink Venetian glass dish

Pink Cocktails

Tanqueray Berry Collins

Absolute Mandarin Cosmopolitans

Pink Mocktails

Sparkling Raspberry and Elderflower

Minted Watermelon Cooler

Late Night Munchies

Bacon sandwiches with ketchup and HP sauce

Cheese toasties with anchovies and Worcester sauce

Late Night Shots
Spiced Bloody Mary's

Hot double espresso
Iced grappa with lime

December Big Picture

Seared beef on Yorkshire Puddings with horseradish cream.

2010 Food Manifesto

Only a few days to go until new year, a new decade, a new start? Let me take this opportunity to reflect and write down my thoughts on the new food rules that will govern us in the twenty teens. 

Bring back the beef: The naughties were the decade of duck and guinea fowl, its time to get back to great British basics - the best of what we have and beyond.

Let your supper sing: It's time to ditch the shots, the skewers, those omnipresent spoons... classic, elegant, white china is the new way. It's time to focus on the content not the vessel.

Mind your manners: Every menu sends a message and the world is moving forward (or back) into fine dining. Serving guests bangers and mash is no longer a witty statement, in the twenty teens it's practically an insult.

Know who to trust: Entertaining less often means getting it right so important. When the stakes are high, don't risk your reputation on anything less than the best - the best people, the best food, the best venue. Find a trusted advisor and use their contacts wisely.