Canapés, roast loin of pork and trio of desserts for a wedding in Tewkesbury

The nearest wedding venue to Tewkesbury Abbey? Quite possibly. Certainly the closest we have catered at.   Another couple we are catering for in September are getting married at Tewkesbury Abbey too - can there be a better venue around the Cotswolds?

Hardwick House

When we commit to an event we go into it wholeheartedly - we get there whether through floods, digging ourselves out of snow drifts, or days when the road melts and the kitchen is 35 degrees and you get sunburnt cooking  serving a barbecue wedding (we've done all 3 and so much more!). Sadly the same can't be said for the original caterer for this wedding - we had been called in when the chef they had originally booked had decided to go away on holiday for his 30th birthday - how could anyone do that? I remember cooking for a dinner party on mine. You have to have 1001% commitment in this business - we play a big part in our clients' celebrations - never more so than their wedding day! And with that comes great responsibility to getting it right.

Smoked salmon blinis, air dried ham with Tewkesbury mustard,  croustade of Oxford blue and pear, croustade of brie and caramelised red onion

As we were coming in to this event at a late stage all the menus had been set up already so we took them on and prepared them in our own way - which had gone down well at the pre-wedding tasting with the bride and groom.

Picked up this pear shaped board a few days before - went with the  country  feel of the wedding

Scotch quail eggs

Quail eggs for the scotch quail eggs the night before - I've started so I'll finish!

Choral group performing on the lawn - real music! Amazingly  large & varied repertoire. Made the afternoon so much better!

Roast loin of Old Spot pork with apricot stuffing, crispy crackling  with Tewkesbury mustard mash, baby vegetables and Herefordshire cider jus

Summer vegetable risotto with poached Burford Brown egg and Double Gloucester cheese crisp - we were going to add marrow to the risotto until I saw it just about to be cut - then thought the marrow could make a great bowl for the risotto instead. So we hollowed out the middle and roasted them and the risotto could go in the middle. The poached egg swung quite a few meat eaters too - so we ended up with 12% risotto vs 88% pork.

Then for dessert........

Trio of desserts - Black Forest of Dean cheesecake, hedgrow pavlova  and pink champagne jelly

Originally the idea had been to serve these just on platters at the table for guests to help themselves. At the tasting I had suggested serving all on one plate like this. It does look rather impressive when it goes out!

Black Forest of Dean cheesecake using this recipe  - the griottine cherries might be terribly expensive, but they're so worth it - this was a revelation!  

Hedgerow pavlova

0

Roast courgettes..... that children like

In the peak of season, courgettes just grow at such a phenomenal rate - look at them in the morning and they're babies, look again in the evening at watering time and you'd think they'd been drinking miracle grow all day.

Leaving them to grow was never a problem for me when I was young - I preferred the steamed marrow rather than the fried courgettes, except maybe if they were mixed with onions, tomato and cheese.....

Last year when I was cooking for a family for a whole week I looked into different vegetable options for each day. Children, as you know, have a certain aversion to vegetables (it's a power issue), but I found with a few simple tricks, you can make something tasty that they like.

This week I have been cooking for a family for 4 days, so again, made sure we had different vegetable accompaniments each day.

These courgettes are peeled, sliced thin on the mandolin, sprinkled with olive oil and a little bit of maldon salt, and then roasted. I find it's the dark green skin that puts children off - looks are everything. Without the skin, it also tones down the taste, which, when your taste buds are young, can be a good thing.

Related posts

Steamed marrow
Children's dishes

0

Steamed marrow in Evian water

Steamed marrow is a great summer flavour-memory from my childhood. I would pick them in the garden take them straight to the kitchen where my mum would peel them, dice them (leaving outthe middle), grind over loads of black pepper, add a little butter, a little water and cook them in a pan with a lid so they steamed. The result was always this lush sweet, watery vegetable you could easily mistake for vegetable candy.

When I came to make my own version last week to accompany free range oganically reared duck, I did it much the same way - lots of black pepper,butter, and used Evian water for that pure taste. That's the taste of summer.

1