"Suprise!"
"I've always dreamed of this!..... Getting caterer's in."
It's always good when everyone can keep it a secret right till the last moment. Last Saturday it was for a special birthday in Droitwich and the birthday girl's husband and the rest of the family had kept it a secret right to the moment they turned up back at their house after being out for the afternoon.
Children's tea
Firstly it was time for a (grand)children's sitting at 5:30 before the evening kicked off.
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| Macaroni cheese - everyone's favourite comfort food |
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| Finishing touches on the knickerbocker glory |
Adults meal
Canapés to start (2 of the 5 below)
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| Mini burgers in homemade carrot and cumin buns |
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| Spoon of seared scallop, asparagus puree and shiitake mushroom |
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| Starter - trio of seafood starters - Homemade salmon gravadlax [on cauliflower and fennel coleslaw], smoked halibut and marinated artichoke, spoon of crayfish and mango |
Then for the main course it was a split - some of the family had grilled fillet steak, a couple had asked for whole dover sole (it was the birthday girl's favourite). It's something you hardly ever see on a menu - you have to go to five star hotels & michelin restaurants.
Rick Stein would do it. We could do it too. It's been a while - we used to do 10 or so a day at Claridges. Always around 10:50pm we'd get the room service dover sole orders, just as we were due to finish at 11pm - great for a bit of waiter-chef banter. When you were on the fish section Saturday was dover sole day.
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| Whole dover sole - whole before prepping at the house - head and tail come off , roe taken out,, de-scaled and then washed & dried. |
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| Cooked meuniere - that paella pan has more than one use - these were 1 lb weight each - so needed the biggest pan possible. |
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| Deboned after cooking and put back together, with the pan juices strained into the lemon beurre noisette spooned on top. So delicious. Should have made it 3 ;) |
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Birthday assiette of dessert. The chocolate writing went down so well we had to clean the plate around it after the meal so it could be kept!
Shotglass of eton mess, shotglass of raspberry sorbet, strawberry meringue roulade, spoon of sticky toffee pudding and glazed lemon tart
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