Trio of asparagus starter for Stanway Barn 2013 wedding

Trio of asparagus starter
Bundle of roasted asparagus spears with cauliflower gremolata
Shortcrust pastry tart with asparagus and wild mushroom fricasse, poached quail egg and hollandaise
Shot glass of asparagus 'cappuchino'

We came up with this starter after discussions with a wedding couple for a wedding in May this year. We tried out a few different variations of tart (below) for them to decide on one. When another wedding couple heard about this starter we did it for them too, and another one as well. Good news spreads it seems!

Tarts from tasting:
Puff pastry tart of asparagus and gruyere
Puff pastry tart with parma ham, feta, asparagus and cherry tomato
Shortcrust pastry tart with asparagus and wild mushroom fricasse with poached quail egg and hollandaise (which is the one we ended up serving)

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Other wedding dishes
Asparagus dishes

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Canapé beef wellington (beef en croute)

A little larger than a canapé this one (above) we made this for a wedding tasting a few weeks ago.  This will be part of an 'english street food' wedding breakfast we are serving next month - can't wait!

Beef fillet with chicken liver pate, spinach and creamed wild mushrooms.  Now that's a mouthful! Actually we're serving this larger than canapé version with knives and forks. 

For this english street food version served with red wine sauce 

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Salmon and asparagus en croute

Taken around 2am on Sunday morning - everything almost ready for all the Easter Sunday parties......

There's some creamed wild mushrooms in there as well!

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Tapas delivery for a hen party

I <3 accounts!

Grilled tiger prawns piri piri - always popular when we do them. Grilled and them mixed  with piri piri sauce.

Spot the sarcasm. Luckily my dad does most of the accounts - keep it in the family - but while reviewing the invoices this afternoon I found this event from November that I hadn't blogged - that's November 2010 (so far behind).

Stuffed peppers - finish in the oven to crisp the parmesan/ breadcrumb topping

Stuffed tomatoes as well 

Garlic and herb ciabatta croutes - top with sautéed mushrooms (seen below)

Sautéed mushrooms with shallots, garlic and chives. Heat & top the garlic croutes (above)

 Chorizo and corn empanadas - see them being made in this post: http://bit.ly/ai7F08

Meatballs in white wine & tomato sauce 

Soda bread (see recipe here) and honey and fennel seed semolina platt (see that one here)

Spanish style lamb cutlets

Baked cannellini beans to go with lamb cutlets above

Paella
An old family recipe which I've updated slightly. Maternal grandparents had a spanish friend who lived in the UK in the 60's -  and it was passed down through the ages in his family. It was served only at special occasions - and for special people. This one was made without seafood as there were some members of he group who couldn' t eat it. 

As I used belly pork in the paella I cut off the skin first to make crackling which you can serve with it -  it's everyone's favourite part!

There! Do you think that was enough?


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Catered tapas event for a hen party
Meze starter for a hen party

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1001 Kitchen tips #60 - The secret ingredient in (vegetarian) mushroom risotto is.......

It was OK - just needed something a bit.... more. Using vegetable stock rather than chicken or fish you lack a certain depth of favour. Had a look in the cupboards, the fridge. Then on the sideboard spotted a jar of marmite. The best discoveries are made by accident.

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Carpaccio of courgette with pickled mushrooms, rocket, parmesan and beetroot dressing

A vegetarian version of the adults starter last Sunday night near Cirencester.
Courgettes are so versatile. And so nice raw, sprinked with a little maldon salt and lemon oil and left to macerate. Curling them like this and popping the pickled wild mushrooms inside was a last minute idea (they're always the best).

Also nice as courgette noodles with orange zest.


Related posts

Pickled mushrooms

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Chanterelle Mushrooms

Close the doors, close the windows, take the phone off the hook and switch the mobile off. The preparation of wild mushrooms is time you need just for yourself. These finest of ingredients need respect as mentioned earlier, and the moment you spend with them should not be wasted. Chantarelle mushrooms either raw or sauteed are undoubtedly the finest.

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Exotic mushrooms

One of the first things I learned at Claridges was "Flavour!" which came next to Seasoning ("more salt!"). To get the best flavour you have to start with sourcing the best quality ingredients. There are many mushrooms available from common (and rather bland) button mushrooms to the most expensive and rare ceps and girolles. The exotic mushrooms we use for our fillet of beef dish come from a farm in Leicestershire.

These ones are:

1. Yellow oyster
2. Buna-Shimeji
3. Shiro-Shimeji
4. Enoki (the thin straw like mushrooms - common in Japanese cookery)
5. Grey oyster

The best ingredients have to have care in the preparation. Preparing mushrooms for such numbers at Claridges would be an afternoon job. We would wash them in luke warm water (cold water damages them), dry them on cloths to remove most of the excess water, then place them on trays underneath the hot lamps of the serving pass (on lowest setting). Now I cater for smaller numbers I have more time to spend on preparation, and prefer to brush any dirt off the mushrooms as below with a pastry brush specially kept for this task. Washing mushrooms is all very well, but with such delicate mushrooms as these it can destroy the texture.



These wild mushrooms also work brilliantly for breakfast or brunch cooked in a little cream and served on top of muffins as shown in an earlier entry.

Ref also: Chanterelle mushrooms: http://www.thecotswoldfoodyear.com/2007/12/chanterelle-mushrooms.html

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Golden Wedding lunch on Sunday

We got home from the wedding (previous entry) to 5 foot of water ungulfing town, and my house,with the emergency services evacuating the last people in town by lifeboat and helicopter. Undaunted we set about preparations for the (largely vegetarian) Sunday buffet lunch.

Our journey to Paxford on Sunday saw only a couple of floods, with one steaming out of the van bonnet. All these items were made fresh on the day.

Potato rosti with smoked salmon and courgettes

Crisp filo rolls with spinach and Gorsehill Abbey Farm St. Agnes cheese. The spinach was seasoned with nutmeg to produce that classic flavour.

Nicoise vegetable tarts

Croutes of glazed goats cheese with pickled red pepper

Grilled vegetable fajitas with sun dried tomatoes and pesto

Toasted muffins with creamed wild mushrooms

Baked new potatoes with hommous and asparagus

Strawberry and champagne tartlets, chocolate and nut torte

Mixed berries with vanilla marscapone

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