Wedding catering at Brockworth Court Tithe Barn, Gloucestershire

There are lots of houses in the Cotswolds called Dove Cottage or Dove House - a few hundred years ago they were kept for their meat. In a lot of houses and barns you see dove holes in the stone walls - but here at Brockworth Court Tythe Barn was a real dovecote. Makes a great talking point as this is where the guests were congregating for their reception drinks. 

Edible flower pots on the table! When I was clearing up the next morning all these had gone - they must have had a serious sugar rush!

Roast butternut squash soup with beetroot pesto served in a bread bowl - do you ever get so hungry you can eat the bowl? 

See how to make the bowls here.

Gill and Anton put together the other starter: ham hock, broad bean, mint and basil pearl barley risotto with beetroot pesto

Matador pie for the main course - similar to this one from a wedding a few years ago. This time we served it with dauphinoise potato, french beans and red wine braised red cabbage. At the tasting they said it was the matador pie that first switched them on to us - they had had the pieminister version at another wedding they had been to but much preferred ours. Not one to argue!
There was also a haddock, tiger prawn and mussell pie with sweet potato mash topping and a meditteranean vegetable pie with crispy filo topping.
When we were clearing up the next day there were compliments from the parents of the bride and groom The pies were the talk of the wedding apparently!

Trio of desserts - strawberry and gooseberry crumble tart, lychee and pommegranate panna cotta and chocolate & blackcurrant brownie

Related posts 

Other weddings we have done

Matador pie 2011

Lychee and pomegranate panna cotta 

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Afternoon tea and hog roast wedding catering, Fladbury near Evesham and Pershore, Worcestershire

Springhill Barn in Fladbury may look unassuming from the outside
But inside it is transformed into a beautiful wedding venue:
The good thing about church weddings are you know when the wedding is starting and finishing due to the bell ringing, and when you hear them the second time you know it is time to get a shift on.

We served afternoon tea on the terrace as guests arrived back from the church. Here the Party Angels are just finishing the set up.
Scones were topped with Cotswold clotted cream and hedgerow jelly from Dove Cottage in Broadway. Delia collects all the berries from the fields around Broadway to make the fabled jelly which she uses for her B & B guests.
We also served elderflower cordial too - another Dove Cottage 2010 vintage from the elderflowers in the fields on the Broadway hills. And my legendary chocolate brownie - how can you resist?

Hog roast wedding buffet

I had picked up the pig around 8am from Home Farm. I passed Mickey the farmer on the way up as he was off to the Stroud Farmers market driving the opposite way. Just a tad too late for him to help lift it out of their fridge. But as luck would have it there were a couple of cyclists waiting for breakfast as B & B guests at the farm. One of them and Anne the farmer helped lift it on to the roasting tin. I was halfway through sawing the legs off the pig so it fitted in the tin when Mickey rushed back in "QUICK! Get the dogs and get up to the top field!" he said to Anne hurriedly. "130 sheep have broken out of the field, if we leave them they'll be all over the village!". It all happens on Saturdays. Anne rushed off in the car with the dogs, Mickey showed me how you reduce the height of the pig (that's not for here) so it was the 8in high that they need for the height of the bakery oven, and the cyclists were left to their own devices for breakfast as Mickey rushed back off towards the Stroud farmers market - can't afford to miss the stand. Meanwhile I rushed to pig back to the Tewkesbury bakery, picked up the larger hire van and went back to the kitchen to finish preparations for the other 2 parties we had going on that day - so much happens before 9am.Crispy crackling - along with pig tail (along with the cheeks & ears one of the tastiest parts)

Potato salad

Beetroot, fennel and radish mixed leaf salad

Tomato, basil and olive salad

Cous cous salad with grilled vegetables

Dessert was their wedding cake which we served with berries and raspberry coulis. And Adam used their cheese to make a cheese wedding cake which we served after the dessert and guests ate throughout the night.

XXXXXX

Dear James

Apologies that it is quite belated but David and I just wanted to say a big thank you for all your help in making our wedding day so special and unforgettable.
All the guests loved the food, especially the crackling from the hog roast which was claimed to be 'the best - EVER!' by several people. My fussy Dad even ate cous cous for the first time and went back for seconds! We really appreciated that you were so organised and we could trust to leave you to get on with things and not worry about anything on the day, and also that you were able to help us suceed in our ethos of using local produce where possible.

Best wishes and all our thanks
David and Joanna Kelly

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Where can I find local food and produce cheaper than the supernarket?

Yes - local food can be not just better tasting, better quality but it can also be cheaper than the supermarket, and you know exactly where your food has come from - you can often see it in the fields!

There are 523 (that's 2 more in the last 4 days!) local outlets cheaper than the supermarket on the Big Barn website. You can use their map to find the one nearest you.

I have found this map really useful in the last few years - so I am only telling you about it now rather belatedly. It is how I have found a number of local farm shops like the Meadows at Home Farm (which I now go to at least once a week), Donnington trout farm, Hayles fruit farm, Simon Weaver's cheese, The Cheeseworks in Cheltenham and Old Farm (which I still need to visit). It also points out all the local farmers markets - I found the Gloucester one from that where I once picked up some free range duck from Madgetts Farm for a last minute booking.

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Wedding catering between Evesham and Pershore in Worcestershire

If it's a wedding reception venue with unique charm and atmosphere you are after - a barn might be just the thing - the old oak beams and Cotswold stone give a rustic feel, and when you have all your friends and family around you, you feel very cosy. The Barn at Springhill Farm between Evesham and Pershore in Worcestershire has been re-furbished just this year - and I couldn't believe the transformation when I saw it again a few weeks ago. Light, airy and vast it makes for a wonderful venue with excellent facilities.
The wedding blessing ceremony was held by the lake, and champagne and dry snacks served on the terrace outside the main house afterwards by the party angels while we set up for the wedding breakfast for 100 guests behind the scenes in the barn. After so many marquee weddings, it was so nice to have a solid floor, walls (no wind blowing through the place), a catering size sink with running water and lots of space to cook in.
Dry snacks

The economic alternative to canapés. Here they are (below right) a couple of days before just after baking.

• 3 types of palmiers - Anchovy, sun dried tomato and black olive
• Gruyere allumettes
• Roasted almonds and cashews
• To see more on how they are made click here

Starter
As the wedding couple wanted to keep the menu very simple to please all their guests they had requested pâté as a starter. I made a smoked trout pâté rolled in cold smoked trout for a starter with trout from the local Donnington trout farm. This was served with marinated cucumber and dill, salad and the melba toast we had made on the preceding Wednesday night.

Then for Grandma who could only eat pureed food I made the above right version - with milk soaked bread, cucumber jelly (cucumber juice set with agar-agar in canapé size muffin tins) and the trout pate without the cold smoked trout around the edge.

For the vegetarian guests they had chosen red lentil pâté. I added a few breadcrumbs to the recipe too so it set a little firmer then wrapped it in leeks. This was really a revelation - it tasted so good with all the spices and lemon - like an enhanced hoummous. I left out the nuts as there were a few guests with nut allergies, but added some olive oil which lightened it too.



Main course

As is so often the case, there was a lot of work involved in getting the main course out quickly and hot, so it was only after we had served it we remembered we should have take a photo. If you have been to a music festival recently you may have come accross Pieminister pies. The wedding couple are Pieminister fans and that was what they had requested for their main course - Matador (beef and chorizo) & mushroom and asparagus for the vegetarian guests. As it is the wedding couples special day I always like to prepare whatever they want - so that is exactly what we did, and plated them with new potatoes in chives, Chantenay carrots and french beans in red onion butter. There were sole goujons and homemade chips for the children which looked like the one seen here last year (scroll to Monday or Thursday).

For Grandma who could only eat pureed food, I had pureed one pie filling and topped it with mashed potato and served it with carrot puree. Very delicious. Really!

Dessert They had enjoyed the raspberry sorbet so much when I delivered their bistro meal a few months before they had asked to add that as part of their raspberry trio dessert.

• Dark chocolate and raspberry tart
• Shotglass of raspberry and marscapone trifle
• Raspberry sorbet

A little raspberry coulis is dotted in between.

Of everything we did this proved the most challenging. Luckily the equipment hire company we use (chairs, crockery, glasses, cutlery, oven etc) is just down the road from us so they picked up my 6 ft upright freezer and took that to the venue along with all their equipment. That meant we could pre-ball the sorbet using my ice cream tip, and then place it in the tuile baskets (stops it melting accross the plate) just as they were being taken by the waiting staff.

I made the tart cases (above left) for the chocolate tart in muffin tins on the preceding Tuesday evening while my dad made the tuile cases (above right), shortly before we cut all the new potatoes. The chocolate tarts were baked on Friday, then flashed in the oven after the main course had gone and then topped with the raspberries. The shotglassess were made in 2 stages - the base just after the starter had gone, and the top after the main course had gone - fresh is best!
Benson of Broadway wedding catering
Related posts:
Some previous weddings we have cooked for
Edit 10/06/09
There are more photos from the wedding couple including the main course and dessert here: http://bit.ly/2ZiL82

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