Easter holiday dinner party - suckling pig & assiette of mini cheese courses and desserts including banoffee eclairs

"This is like your second home in the Cotswolds!" I quipped. We have cooked for the same family 2 or 3 times a year ever since Wellacres opened in 2007 - it's so good why go elsewhere? They are also the parties we look forward to - always a fun evening!

This time round they really went the whole hog. Well, suckling pig anyway - as one pig will suit a smaller party. 

Scallops, tiger prawns and salmon with vegetable noodles, ginger, herbs & whisky -  you open at the table so you get all the aromas - see more here. 

As I was making these there was a heated rummy then blackjack game going on between mother and daughter, everyone gathered round the kitchen table.

Ballotine of suckling pig with chestnut stuffing

The previous suckling pig roast we had served had been supplied by the farmer who reared them in his spare time. He had suggested subbing the scored skin with vinegar as well as salt overnight to make the best crispy crackling. So I tried this this time - certainly looked good, but so busy never got round to trying it. 

After slicing I served it on a large platter at the table. The accompanying vegetables - sautéed savoy cabbage & caraway seeds, rosti potato and french beans wrapped in pancetta were plated. 

The night before de-boned, the leg, belly and shoulder meat reserved for stuffing the next day and the skin scored , dried and seasoned with salt and vinegar. 

Looks kind of cute in the tray. There is no place for being squeamish in the kitchen - you forget this isn't a normal sight for everyone however.......

Only after bit of persuasion from the male guests to the rest of the party was the pig allowed to be served at the table - it all adds to the theatre of the meal!

Can't decide between cheese and dessert?  Why not have both. On the same plate! They liked it so much last time around they asked for the same thing for this meal. 

• Blacksticks Blue cheese and mulled wine jelly - this was so popular last time we did the same thing again (just with double the amount of gelatine in the jelly which makes it easy to cut).  
• Goats cheese souffle with mustard white wine sauce
• Bakewell tart
• Shotglass of black forest trifle (I loved these - see recipe here)
• Banoffee eclairs (just had this idea they would be nice - couldn't find a recipe so made my own - pureed fresh banana and a little lemon with whipped double cream piped in the middle of the eclair and then the banoffee toffee recipe from banoff pie)

Everyone was choosing their favourite dessert - as we hear so often, well at every assiette of dessert we serve. I think each of the items got at least one vote! 

Just can't wait till the next one now. What's that to be? I was trying to suggest the idea of the cookery events we do - see how its done. Wellacres is the prefect venue for that. Now that would be an evening to remember too.


Related posts

40th birthday meal, December 2011 - Seabass & cauliflower gremolata, Calves liver & pineapple tarte tatin (not on the same plate)
Assiette of mini cheese courses and desserts

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Catering for a 40th birthday party - seabass and cauliflower poached in saffron, Grilled calves liver and bacon, Pineapple tarte tatin

The dining room end of the kitchen at Wellacres had been transformed by the time we got there:

We have cooked for this family around the same time every year since 2007 when Wellacres first opened for business. This time it was for 2 meals - last Saturday night, and then this special birthday last night. Great to see them again - among my favourite people to cook for.

As we had cooked for them so many times before it was nice to try something different for them.

Seabass and cauliflower poached in saffron and white wine with  cauliflower gremolata

 Firstly cauliflower was poached in white wine and chicken stock with a healthy amount of saffron just before we left, so the saffron flavour and colour would infuse into the cauliflower. Once we got to the house, I drained that liquid onto seabass fillets (Fillets were largish so 8 did 12). This was poached just before the guests were about to sit down.

Gremolata - fine grated cauliflower, lemon zest, fine grated garlic, chopped parsley. The gremolata sprinkled on top gives you a great fresh flavour.

Grilled calves liver and bacon with creamed potato, grilled organic portobello mushrooms, vine tomatoes and bearnaise sauce

The birthday girl's favourite is calves liver and bacon - so that is what we did! 

The calves liver I started grilling on the grill pan  as they started to eat the starter - last minute is best with calves liver. Where a lot of people go wrong with cooking liver at home is they cook it for ages till it's dry and tough. Much better when it's cooked quick - after grilling I just flashed it through the oven once they had finished the starter. It did create a bit of smoke in the kitchen - but luckily the smoke alarms at that house are very well behaved and we ventilated with the windows. Makes a good bit of 'kitchen theatre' while you're eating though as well as making a better result. 

There's spinach underneath the tomato - healthy living and some chantenay carrots and bearnaise sauce was served on the side - feast!

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Pineapple tarte tatin with pina colada ice cream

While the apple or banana tarte tatin are so popular, I also like this pinepple version. So did the guests. When you hear "Wow!" "Oh my God!" and "Yum!" while everyone's eating you know things are going ok. The pina colada ice cream was a hit as well. While I've done malibu and coconut ice cream before, this version was even better. After the hass sour cocktail Ms Marmitelover made at the avocado meal I helped with I discovered a new love of cocktails. Pina colada has to be on the top ten most popular - so why not  turn it into ice cream!

Pina Colada Ice Cream

Combination of my Baileys ice cream recipe and Nigella's pina colada ice cream. The lime juice adds a neccessary zing.

400ml tin coconut milk
500ml double cream
300ml pineapple juice (ish)
200g caster sugar
Juice 3 - 4 limes. Maybe more
Toasted dessicated coconut

Heat a ladle full of the cream with the sugar till sugar melts. No combine with the rest of the ingredients and chill in fridge. Churn in your ice cream machine till it starts freezing - takes a bit longer than other ice creams because of the alcohol content.

Need an ice cream machine? See 2 I like (at opposite ends of the cost scale) here.


Related posts

Thai style seabass with pinapple and cucumber salad
Baileys ice cream
1001 Kitchen Tips #22 - Chargrilling tip - I used for the liver so it didn't stick to the pan

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Canape spoon of seared scallop with asparagus puree and shiitake musroom

Well this seemed to be a hit. Almost as much as the mini burgers - but not quite. It's been 2 years since Nick posted this, but I knew it would make a good canape one day. Simple ingredients - just very good. This was one of ten canapes we served for the wedding reception, then it was back in the evening to serve their dinner party - fish trio, beef wellington and an assiette dessert, while a few other parties went on elsewhere. Quite a day.

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Cheese wedding cake

St. Kennelm
St. Eadburgh - Large & small
Oxford Blue
Smoked Cerwyn
Capricorn goats cheese

Apples, blackberries, leaves & lavender come from the garden at Wellacres (where it was served) and the marjoram flowers and ivy came from my garden.

Cheese wedding cake 2011

Related posts

Cheese wedding cake August 2008 - 170 people

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Barbecue catering

Talk about déjà vu. A week minus 4 hours after I was cooking a barbecue at Wellacres near Moreton in Marsh, I was back cooking another one. This time for 30 adults and a childrens buffet for 15.

Thai style blackened cod was on the menu again - even more popular this week than the one before if that was possible.

Blackened cod

The name comes from the colour the marinade imparts, rather than it being burnt on the barbecue (it wasn't).

I cut 100 - 120g steaks for this and marinaded them in the morning in a mixture of soy sauce, oyster sauce, thai fish sauce, lime zest, dark brown sugar, microplaned ginger and garlic, ground cumin and coriander seeds, chillies and fresh coriander. With all that umami it's no wonder it became the talk of the day, and people came back for more.

Beef rib eye steaks

Marinaded in barbecue sauce

Harrissa marinaded lamb steaks

Lamb from Home Farm.

This was accompanied by spinach salad, roasted vegetable cous cous and potato salad.

Chocolate fondue with fruit skewers and marshmallows

We cleared the salads and as I put down the first plate of fruit skewers down one of the children spotted them and picked one up. I took over the bowl of chocolate fondue, and the word was out and the chocolatefest began. This only increased when I put down the plate of marshmallows. Chocolate fondue is such a great party dessert!

The figs, now in season, were more for the adults, and next to grilling them with blue cheese it is one of the nicest ways to eat them.

Related posts

Some other barbecues we have served

Link:

Michael Saxon's thai blackened cod recipe

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Holiday chef

'We take the catering out of self catering, leaving you time to spend on your self'.

A personal chef for your holiday - all or some of your meals taken care of: breakfast, lunch, childrens meals and evening meals are all possible - you decide how much you want us to do. It's like being in a hotel but with the flexibility of your own home. No taxis to restaurants to organise and no baby sitter needed for the children - and it doesn't cost as much as you think!

We have menu ideas using the links below, but are happy to make whatever you would like - after all it's your special holiday!

Previous dishes made to request can be seen here: Special request .

You can also find dishes we have served in the past by clicking on starters, main course, dessert etc on the right sidebar or by using the search engine on the top left.

For weekends we also have weekend catering packages here: Benson of Broadway weekend catering pacakges and special offers

If you are interested in just one night - ideal for a celebration because you can spend your evening with your guests rather than toiling in the kitchen - we have menus here: Benson of Broadway menus.

We can either cook you meal in your home with chef and waiting staff or deliver it chilled with simple instructions for you to heat and serve.

You can see our previous clients' feedback here: Benson of Broadway recommendation letters.

See a previous holiday chef menu post - click here

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11 - 16 August 2009

Last week we cooked for a lady celebrating her 70th birthday at Wellacres. Adam cooked for them on Saturday when her family were there while I was barbecuing in Stroud. Then the family left on the Sunday and Monday, and her friends arrived on Tuesday and I cooked for them on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

It was a week of bistro menus. They chose the Saturday menu but left the rest of the days to me so I tried out a few new bistro dishes.



As always there were different chocolates to go with the coffee & tea each day and different flavour bread rolls, but this time even different shapes for the rolls.


Tuesday

Homemade sundried tomato, olive and basil bakers knot rolls

Asparagus and gruyère tart
You can see more about this on a previous post.

Slow cooked shoulder of pork with lentils, spinach and chorizo......

Pot roasted for 6 hours - like the pork belly. The foil is taken off the top for the last hour so the crackling can crisp up. There is some spinach hiding underneath the pork.
..... and turnip and carrot salad

Cut on the mandolin. Bound with mayonnaise and vinaigrette a bit like coleslaw, but with turnips. Salted over night and then drained the turnips take on a new character - you could just mix them with olive oil and lemon and use them like celariac.

New York vanilla cheesecake with cherries in cherry brandy
I took the cherries raw and whole, and pitted them when I got there. Dropped in a little thickened sugar syrup with a good amount of cherry brandy and cooked for just a couple of minutes till soft (but you don't want them to puree!). I left them to cool naturally while we served the rest of them meal so they could remain at room temperature.

Coffee, tea and handmade white chocolate and blueberry fudge
Wednesday

Homemade onion bread rolls
Smoked chicken and orange salad with orange dressing
Donnington trout fillets in cider and apple sauce with baked cannellini beans, runner beans, broad beans and mangetout

When I was updating a few pages on the website recently I came accross this long forgotten dish, something I did in the months before I started. I thought it was time for a revamp. This is after all a sustainable fish - and in the Cotswolds about the only local fish, although I saw they had eel there as well.
The trout were still alive the morning before we served this. I had picked them up at Donnington on the way the previous evening - you have to let them rest overnight so the bones relax enough to pin bone them. I still can't forget the night I tried to pinbone them a few hours after they had been caught. The fillets are cooked skin side up (you need to scale them for this) so you can eat the crispy skin with a ladle of cider on the tray as well which poaches them from underneath.

Banana tarte tatin with homemade rum and raisin ice cream
After the success of the barbecued bananas recently I thought it would be good to try a banana tarte tatin. I still had some caramel left from cooking apples for tarte tatin and pineapples for the barbecue. All the flavour from cooking those was imparted to the bananas. The combination of this and the rum and raisin ice cream was just pure decadence.

Coffee, tea and handmade chocolate and coconut fudge


Thursday

I had saved the lamb and lemon tart till the last day - everyone's favourite. Always good to finish on a high note.

Homemade pesto bread rolls
Pearl barley risotto with wild nettles, roasted purple sprouting broccoli, artichokes and nettle pesto

After so many days in the kitchen it was nice to get out in the morning to pick nettles along the river. I found the first blackberries too - just a single bush that was directly in the sunlight, while the rest were still bitter green or still in flower. I sautéed the nettles and used some in the risotto itself and some to make pesto to go with it.





Shoulder of lamb with tabbouleh and grilled vegetables

Exactly the same as this one pictured a couple of months ago.

Glazed lemon tart with raspberries and raspberry sorbet

Coffee, tea and handmade elderflower Turkish delight
There is more on the turkish delight here.




"We have to go home tomorrow" said one guest at the end "and cook our own meals again - it just won't be the same". "Well you'll just have to come back again" I said. One of the other guests was already noting down our details and those of the house to do just that......

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Wedding in the Cotswolds

Hello James, I can't thank you enough for the wonderful wedding buffet you provided for Paul and Sophie at Wellacres on Saturday. The food was amazing and everybody was so impressed with the quality. You certainly helped to make the day one to remember. Good luck for the future and we will certainly recommend you to our friends.

Kind regards

Carol

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25kg of goose foie gras. There's some things you never forget, and the divine aroma of 25kgs of foie gras filling the Claridges larder on the week of Joan Collins' most recent wedding (8 years ago? You can not be serious) is one of them.

For this event two days ago at Wellacres (which I know now better than my own kitchen at home) I was emailed a wishlist of what the bride and groom would like. Quite traditional - which is fine. As it is the wedding couple's special day I am always quite happy to cook whatever they want. Even simple food can be made special if you bring the best out of your ingredients. As they wanted to serve and clear up themselves, I just set up everything ready for them.

The best thing about holding a wedding reception at a luxury holiday house rather than a hotel or wedding venue is that in the holiday house you have exclusive use, all day, and all weekend, so it can be much more relaxed as a result. I always feel in wedding venues you are rushed through so the next wedding party can arrive, so if something overruns, the time of your reception gets cut. In the holiday house this never happens - because you're the only party there, and you have the freedom. There was a wedding we did at Wellacres a couple of years ago when the weather was once again favourable and after eating some of the younger guests dived in the swimming pool and hot tub while others relaxed on the terrace in the sun - that's how to enjoy a wedding.

Crudités with dips - blue cheese, onion and chive, tatziki

It took quite a while for them to decide whether they wanted canapés or not. In the end they asked for crudités and dips which they tucked into after the champagne had been flowing and the band had been playing on the terrace.

Homemade walnut and raisin bread rolls, soda bread, sun dried tomato, olive and basil knots and clover rolls, granary bakers knots, sesame and poppy snail rolls, lemon and dill bread.

All they had put was 'Selection of breads (i.e. granary, white, wholemeal, baguettes and fancy etc.) ' . So this is what I came up with, and two large interlocking bread rings (shame I didn't snap those). As the soda bread (left) is so easy that was made first thing in the morning.

Platter or cooked meats – beef, ham, chicken with homemade chutney

For the ham I used a piece of gammon from Home Farm and cooked it in cider, apples, onion, carrot etc. which gives it a sweet flavour, then finished it off in the oven with the skin scored and studded with cloves and coated with a molasses and wholegrain mustard glaze.

The chicken was a Madgetts farm chicken ballottined and roasted.

The beef was roasted last thing, timed exactly so it would be ready just before I left, and could rest on the way. I sliced the other two meats but left the beef whole so they could carve it themselves at the table - this would stop it drying out or discolouring, but also add a little theatre to their dining.

Smoked salmon

.....and poached salmon too. Some crème fraîche, chive and lemon dressing to go with it.

Nicoise vegetable tart - as seen here

King prawns with cocktail sauce

These never fail to please. They actually went out with the crudités in the end.

Potato salad - Like this one we served at Wellacres in February with the whole lamb roast

Rice & pearl barley salad

Adzuki beans and fresh (uncooked) peas in there too along with peppers, onions, raisins, coriander, cumin etc.

Tomato and mozzarella salad

Grilled vegetables

A bit like these from February but with asaparagus as well. They were cooked fresh on the morning.

Cucumber, yogurt and mint salad - Like the one served for a barbecue last month

Green salad with vinaigrette

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Summer pudding - like this one but larger

Chocolate brownie

Same recipe as the one seen here, but cooked in individual tins - like the one, left, from Easter.

Berries with crème fraîche

Strawberry tart

Well this wasn't on the original proposal, but you know how it is - you see recipes on food blogs and you bookmark it, but never get round to making it. Well this one I did. When I saw it over on Kevin's blog, I knew it would fit perfectly on this wedding buffet. Without the nuts though, as there were nuts in other things.

Fairy cakes

They had asked for these for the children, so while the grilled vegetables were grilling, the roast vegetables roasting, the base for the rice salad sweating, the soda bread baking, the beef roasting and the salmon poaching I made these fairy cakes. Think they call that multi tasking.

Must be over 20 years since I made any. I remember making and entering them for a cub scout county craft fair when I was about 9, and that was a while ago, so I had to look up a recipe and found this one. I didn't use their icing recipe, but instead used equal quantities of butter and icing (confectioners) sugar and a drop of vanilla essence. As I had some candied orange zest on the shelf I sprinkled those on top. One taste, and it was like being transported back in time. Should make these more often.

As we had a spare lemon drizzle cake from the day before, I cut this up and added it as well.

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After this it was a quick clear down and back to base to whip up 3 strawberry meringue roulades and 2 duck ballottines for the evening while Adam packed up everything we both needed. Soon enough I was back on the road to Blockley again, and Rock Bank Cottage, while he was at Upper Court. Now that's a lot of food in 2 days!

Related posts:

Buffet lunch, afternoon tea cakes and barbecue the day before

Some other weddings

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