Wedding catering in Gloucester - all canape wedding reception

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

"Look - he's compsing the blogpost as we speak" said the father of the bride at one point. What me? I had my eyes down at that moment. With 25 different canapes to serve there comes a time where you need to get out the spade and get dug in.

It seemed like they had ordered not just the canapés but the weather too - beautifully warm and sunny which brought out the best of the house.

Hotels and wedding venues can often seem like conveyor belts where one wedding party is rushed through so the next can come in, but when you have your wedding reception at your own home as this one was (or holiday house) it seems much more relaxed and personal - what can be better than sharing your house with your friends and family?

This was the second all canapé wedding reception we have done this year - is it a new fashion? It seems to work really well - rather than have a few canapés and then a traditional 3 or 4 course wedding breakfast you just have an extended canapé menu. We had had a few meetings in the months prior to this event, and the bride, groom and the bride's parents all had their favourite canapés. I thought 25 varieties might be slightly too many, but deleting any proved to be so difficult for them as they all had their favourites that in the end we did them all - why not: it's your special day after all.

I had been hoping for lots of photos, alas it got so busy we just kept putting canapés out and then remembered photos afterwards. You can click on the underlined items to link to previous photos/ recipes.

Cold Canapés

Sweet potato scones with smoked chicken and sweetcorn chutney (can be without chicken for vegetarians)

I had picked up this loose leaf Lady Grey tea a while back and finally found a use for it. As well as black tea leaves it contains bergamot oil, cornflowers, orange and lemon. Ideal for drinking, or smoking chicken.

The kitchen is a no smoking zone, so if you're going to smoke can you do it outside please =)

I stood this on a stool after everyone else had left Basepoint for the weekend. One of the bakers was just starting at the bakery opposite though and seemed interested in what I was up to. It just smells the kitchen out so it is better outside. For a starter you want a lightly smoked flavour, but for a canape you only have a small bite so it wants to be stronger. So I hot smoked it i.e. kept the heat going under the tea leaves so the chicken cooked as it smoked.
You can see the finished result below.

Rosemary scones with parma ham and St. Eadburgh's cheese

Mini stilton cheesecakes with red onion and port marmalade

Asparagus on baked new potatoes with smoked trout mousse

King prawns with horseradish cocktail sauce

Smoked salmon blinis

Spoons of king prawn and mango

Hot Canapés

Tikka marinaded chicken with lemon yogurt

Harissa marinaded lamb skewers with hommous

Coconut and coriander fishcakes with curry mayonnaise

Mini Yorkshire puddings with grilled fillet steak and horseradish

Homemade mini burgers in carrot and cumin sesame buns

You don't get these in a drive-thru

Beef came from (where else?) Home Farm just a few miles away. Mixed with garlic, coriander (fresh leaf & crushed dried seeds), chilli, mustard, cooked red onion, egg to bind and seasoning. After chilling to set the shape I grilled them before we went, so the smoke from the grill wouldn't waft though their house - not quite what you want as you are entertaining guests. Then I could finish in the oven just before they were served.

Carrot and cumin bun recipe here. I added ras el hanout as well - extra flavour. The photo has the time 04:31 on it. Preparation the day before did go on a while as everything was made from scratch, but as some guests said it showed in the quality of food.

Scallops wrapped in pancetta with pesto mayonniase

King prawns wrapped in filo pastry

Spoons of Oakfield mushroom risotto with parmesan

Fish and chips in paper cones with tartare sauce

Chips that pass in the night

It only seemed a while since I had been making the larger size fish and chips. I had picked the cones up for a late night snack of fish goujons and chips we were going to serve at another wedding, but cut in half they served the canape size very well.

Dessert Canapés

Glazed lemon tartlets

Mini dark chocolate tarts

Raspberry shortbread

Mini strawberry meringue roulade

Shotglass of tirimisu