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.

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Honey roast Gloucester Old Spot/ Berkshire cross gammon cooked in Piddle in the Hole ale

Cooking gammon in cider was a revelation from Carol Webb about 5 years ago. Looking for new bistro menu ideas in January this year, Ethan suggested gammon and it morphed into this & has been very popular from the moment we first served it.
The gammon from Home Farm (they have a new collie puppy btw - so cute) starts off being braised in the wonderfully named ale brewed around 15 miles away for 7 hours - so it is meltingly soft.
Then glazed with honey and spices and roasted.
The juices and some of the reduced cooking liquor is made into a beer, honey & mustard dressing to go with it.






This particular gammon is from Cheltenham race week (18 events in one week - amazing) and the clients wanted it cold with a selection of salads - a nice simple meal after travelling to the Cotswolds from Ireland. It must have been good - they re-booked for next year's Cheltenham week, along with the other week-long party we served.

Traditional waldolf salad which they requested.

Beetroot, lentil, rocket, fennel and radish salad. Healthy living.

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Terrine of ham hock and broad beans with pea puree

Fresh is best. This takes time to press and set so I made it around 23 hours before serving.
The Sunday night function had rolled straight into the new week - a new Monday - just after midnight. I suddenly remembered the ham hock. You have to strike early out in the Cotswolds for ham hocks. Eventually I took the diced ham hock from Collins in Broadway and poached that for 4 hours in court bouillon.

Most people discard the onions, leek & carrot from the court bouillon once it's cooked. But as they have so much flavour I like to add them in to the terrine (like I do now with the salmon rillette too). There was harricot bean puree too (below), broad beans, parsley and cumberland sauce and the terrine was wrapped in leeks. Once it is up to room temperature it's just so good.

This was served at the same time (for the non-vegetarians) as the roast asparagus with tahini dressing.

It's almost as good as the ham hock and foie gras version - I would do that if anyone wanted to pay a supplement for the foie gras.

Related posts

Chicken and foie gras terrine
Beer baked beans
Smoked salmon and king prawn terrine

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