Eggs Benedict for a pre-wedding breakfast in Chepstow, Monmouthshire

"That kettle doesn't seem to be working"
"I think someone has filled it too full" She pours some water out, switches it on. It works again.
"Wow - you're a genius!"
"...I'm a mother!"

Think of a fantasy breakfast you could have served up before you set off for your wedding. Eggs Benedict has to be right up there doesn't it?!
Home Farm bacon (or ham if you prefer) and poached eggs on toasted english muffins topped off with freshly made hollandaise (see hollandaise recipe here).

I served this on Saturday for a party before they set off to their wedding.

It's a while since I served 24 people on my own. Luckily I had some help from some of the guests when it came to plating up.

"Look at those yolks!"
"Look John - that's how you poach eggs!"

Using the best eggs helps of course:

0

Quail egg benedict canape & assiette dessert

When the kids are away the parents will play! "Wwwwoooooooo!" "Wwwwwwooooooooooooooo!" "Oh food?! Is there any need for that tonight?" 

Well that's the record broken for the loudest party we've ever done - beats even the rowdiest hen party. Way to go!

The 2 waiters had to go either end of the drawing room at the same time by the end - the husbands were camped at one end and the wives at the other. The men seemed most offended when we took this plate of quail egg benedict to the wives' side. While I was getting the starter together guests kept coming up asking how it was done - how could you get so many poached quails eggs ready at the same time?

As with everything else with dinner parties it's all down to the 3 P's - Preparation, preparation, preparation. I had poached them just before leaving. There's a great article here on how it's done which I found via someone's tweet (can't remember who now) - same way I've been doing them since my first breakfast shifts at the Lygon Arms. Drop them into iced water, then re-heat them just before serving for a couple of minutes in just off the boil water.

The muffins were cut out & topped with ham, cut with same size cutter. As we had an aga at our disposal at Wyelands House in Chepstow I just dropped them in the simmering oven for a few minutes. Meanwhile the hollandaise was warming in a bain marie - if it's thick let it down with a little warm water so it's easy to spoon on top of the eggs, but not too much so it runs off and onto your guests' evening dress. Then warmed quail egg goes on top of the muffin & ham and hollandaise on top.

Make sure you do plenty of spares - one is never enough.......

Dessert

Their assiette of dessert - they had it all - canapes, 2 courses, then an assiette dessert. This one was chocolate tart, glazed lemon tart, spoon of creme brulee, raspberry lavender shortbread (heart shape) and lemon meringue pie.

2

All vegetarian buffet lunch year 4 - new cakes & salad

4th year running - can't be bad!

As they let me come up with menu choices I try and add in new things each year. This year there were 2 vegans as well - so we had a few different things for them as well.

• Black forest cupcakes Who can resist the old classics? From recipe here.

• Blackberry and apple shortcake

• 

I raided a few recipes from over here - the first being this one. If you want a recipe you know is going to work go for one on a blog - you know it's tried and tested :) I just added blackberries as well.

• Individual tirimisu cheesecakes - quite possibly the ultimate cheesecake flavour!

Base
250g Amaretti biscuits

125g Unsalted butter

Filling

270g Ricotta

270g Marscapone

120g Caster sugar

2 1/2 Eggs

180 ml Creme fraiche

2 1/2 tbsp Cornflour

2 - 3 tsp Coffee essence

2 - 3 tsp Tia Maria

For method see normal recipe. The amaretti biscuits seem to soak up more butter than others - so you need more butter. I also did a vegan version - with nice biscuits and the same kind of filling but using alpro soy dessert with coffee essence & tia maria set with gelatine.

• Vegan beetroot and chocolate cake. From recipe here. Last minute. com topping was sweetened soy milk with vanilla thickened with cornflour.

• Pineapple puff pastry tarts - "That was lush!" said the guy we had helping us with the washing up. Eevryone had to try one. He was right. They were! Recipe again from here. I tried adding a bit of lemon curd under the pineapple slices. Seemed to work well. Other than that - maybe you could try frangipane. These literally came out of the oven and went straight on the road - can't beat that for freshness. So busy didn't manage to get a photo of finished tart - this pic actually comes ©Ms Marmitelover from this event we did.

• Cauliflower, fennel, red onion and radish salad. Earlier in the year at a dinner party we were serving I had made a cauliflower and fennel coleslaw when those were the only ingredients we had left, and we had found ourselves with a little bit of extra time as guests sat down late. It seemed to work very well, and I tried it out as a salad here bound with mustard vinaigrette. A few basil leaves finish it off.

• Benedict bars
Another hit. These were the two off-cut pieces. A photo at dusk earlier tonight - now you see why I'm a chef not a food photographer. Another recipe via Lucy made in this case with hedgerow jelly from Dove Cottage in Broadway made from berries picked from the local fields.

Related posts

All vegetarian buffet 2008 (whole host of vegetarian sandwich ideas)

All vegetarian buffet 2009 (new vegetarian ideas + vegan cakes)

All vegetarian buffet 2010 (vegetarian salad ideas - my favourite was the tex-mex)

2