13 Perfect Canapes for your 2013 Summer Party

Bovingdons help our clients ensure their summer events are "even better than last year".

The tasty menu below works perfectly for a drinks reception with canapés and should be served a lovely Prosecco, with Pimms. Call us for more information 020 8874 8032.

A balanced, delicious menu of bitesize morsels, easy to eat, light yet satisfying.

Vegetarian

Broad bean and pecorino falafel with lemon yoghurt dip

Cucumber cups with feta, mint and parsley

Rosemary shortbreads with goat’s cheese and tomato chutney

Sultana bread croutes with Dolcelatté and balsamic glazed fresh figs

Fish

Wraps of cured salmon with fennel carpaccio

Dukkah crusted, seared tuna loin in smoked paprika

Skewers of lemon grass and chilli marinated king prawns

Meat

Macadamia blini, rare beef, honey and truffle with a rocket pesto

Chicken and lemongrass boudine, toasted jasmine rice and a cucumber relish

Confit duck, savoy cabbage with peach relish

Sweet

Waffle cones of summer sorbets and ice-creams (below)

Spoons of vanilla pannacotta with vanilla infused peaches and lavender syrup

Homemade passion fruit marshmallows

British Asparagus... eating it!

Here are some wonderful ways to enjoy asparagus…

As a trio: asparagus torte, chargilled spears, a quails egg and a shot glass of cool asparagus vichyssoise (see left)

As an incredibly elegant starter…
Saturn bowl filled with a salad of fresh asparagus, artichoke hearts, blistered cherry tomatoes and avocado with chervil and mustard dressing

As a natural way of adding some drama to a salad…
Fresh hand made asparagus ravioli with herb emulsion and micro shoots

Spring take on pasta…
Rare roast Sirloin of beef with wild mushroom jus, chargrilled asparagus and thyme Talegio potatoes

As a perfect partner to some phenomenal centrepiece…
Asparagus bundles tied with chives served with a vanilla and pomegranate mayonnaise

A stylist ingredient in a working brunch…
Fresh asparagus soup with crème fresh and sage parmesan bread

Stand alone stand out soup…
Poussin with fresh asparagus stuffing, lemon risotto and tarragon tus

And two ideas from the British Asparagus Growers website ...
Gizzy Erskine’s British asparagus, broad bean, mint and mozzarella brushetta
Tiffany Goodall’s British asparagus Thai coconut curry

Using Flowers

Valentines Day is upon us and the shops are bursting with flowers.

Flowers are not just for your loved ones, they should also be for your plates. They make a beautiful garnish, decoration or delicious ingredient.

Here are some examples:

* Crystallised violets and sugared rose petals add a delightful vintage touch to any dessert.
* Lavender flavoured biscotti with crème brulee or lamb marinated in lavender for a divine taste.
* Bright orange nasturtiums, marigold* petals, dandelion and tiny blue borage for garnishing salads.
* Courgette and squash flowers – tempura and garnish a risotto or fill them with fresh crab meat as a delicate canapé.
* Borage flowers – I can’t drink Pimm’s without them now (word of advice for gardeners – plant carefully – plant one borage plant and next year you will have ten).
* Hibiscus flower buds in glass cups, open into a beautiful tea.
* Daylily (lilies are poisonous but this isn’t a real lily) – fabulous if stripped into individual petals in a salad and also makes a great ingredient for an omelette.
* All herb flowers are edible, look pretty and often more flavoured than the herb leaves.
* Chive flowers – perfect to decorate delicate dishes such as smoked salmon parfait and cucumber salad.
* Pea shoots and bean flowers make for sophisticated toppings for sea bass.
* Camomile – keep calm with freshly brewed tisanes.
* Bergamot – amazing deep red and really useful in rice & pasta dishes, with pork or as a vibrant topping to salads.

NEVER use the following as garnishes or décor: foxglove, daffodil, crocus, lily of the valley. If you are in doubt, don’t eat it!

BE AWARE that asthmatics may suffer allergies to daisies and marigolds.

(I've also uploaded this article to my regular slot on The Wedding Community pages)

Photos from our Summer Soiree

Part 2: Food

Photos below (by Lloyd Dobbie) and the full menu can be seen by clicking here on this post: http://bovingdons.blogspot.com/2010/10/end-of-summer-soiree.html

Tapas station of whole hand carved Serrano ham, Manchego cheese, bruschetta and olives.

Quails egg Royale; brioche croutes, smoked salmon, poached quails eggs and hollandaise

 

Confit of duck with foie gras, Savoy cabbage and pickled peach relish

 Wild mushroom and truffle risotto balls

Black pudding gallette with spiced fig puree and serrano ham

Photos from the Summer Soiree

Part 1: People

Fabulous proffesionals from all over Surrey and London, fabulous flowers by Hybrid, fabulous food by Bovingdons, fabulous lighting by Duncan from Effectevent, all captured on film by fabulous Lloyd Dobbie.

Gathering around a bountiful table with a glass of fizz and great company.

Siobhan Craven-Robbins and Lester Gethings

Julie Gray with Michael White

Antonio Sanzari and Helen Carter

Our kitchen team hard at work

Benita

Solenne

End of Summer Soiree

Last week we threw an End of Summer Soiree at Nonsuch Mansion. A few friends, clients, hard working event planners in need of respite after a busy summer and a chance to take a breath before Christmas kicks in. So what to feed such fabulous people (aside from plenty of fizz)?

We started with conversation point centrepiece: a tapas station of whole hand carved Serrano ham, Manchego cheese, bruschetta and olives.

Followed by canapes:

* Confit of duck with foie gras, Savoy cabbage and pickled peach relish
* Black pudding gallette with spiced fig puree and serrano ham
* Mini beef and Autumn vegetable pies
* Quails egg Royale; brioche croutes, smoked salmon, poached quails eggs and hollandaise
* Crab and chickpea cakes with corned crab, spiced tomato chutney
* Spoons of orange cured sword fish with pickled cucumber
* Wild mushroom and truffle risotto balls
* Shots of warm white bean cappuccino topped with a tomato wafer
* Demi tasse of sticky toffee pudding with butterscotch sauce and clotted cream

Photos to follow shortly...

In Season - Elderflower

Last week the Bovingdons team threw themselves (literally!) into the hedgerows of Ripley and picked three huge sacks full of elderflowers. Chef David has since made bottles and bottles of syrup (about 102 litres!) and the office smells distractingly of English summertime.

Our syrup recipe is secret but you can find plenty online, it’s a very similar process to making homemade lemonade. You’ll need about thirty to fifty perfect heads of flowers (no brown ones), a kilo of sugar and some citric acid (find it in Waitrose or health food shops) plus any variety of secret ingredient depending on the chef. Once made, here are some ways to use your syrup:

- Make Bovingdons signature Apple Fez, cloudy apple juice, ginger ale, elderflower and mint sprigs.
- Whisk with creme fraiche, gooseberry compote and lemon zest for a perfect Fool
- Suspend summer fruits in elderflower and prosecco jelly
- Flavour pannacotta and serve with raspberries garnish with the flowers
- Fritter the flowers in the lightest tempura and serve beside strawberries
- Elderflowers can also be used in pork and duck recipes but I would proceed with caution here! It can be very, very sweet.
- Or simply add a drop to champagne, pink gin, vodka martini’s, Pimms … sip and enjoy...

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

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)

February Big Picture

Lavender meringue hearts with passion fruit cream on a spiral glass plate

as featured in You and Your Wedding Magazine.

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