Canapés, roast loin of pork and trio of desserts for a wedding in Tewkesbury

The nearest wedding venue to Tewkesbury Abbey? Quite possibly. Certainly the closest we have catered at.   Another couple we are catering for in September are getting married at Tewkesbury Abbey too - can there be a better venue around the Cotswolds?

Hardwick House

When we commit to an event we go into it wholeheartedly - we get there whether through floods, digging ourselves out of snow drifts, or days when the road melts and the kitchen is 35 degrees and you get sunburnt cooking  serving a barbecue wedding (we've done all 3 and so much more!). Sadly the same can't be said for the original caterer for this wedding - we had been called in when the chef they had originally booked had decided to go away on holiday for his 30th birthday - how could anyone do that? I remember cooking for a dinner party on mine. You have to have 1001% commitment in this business - we play a big part in our clients' celebrations - never more so than their wedding day! And with that comes great responsibility to getting it right.

Smoked salmon blinis, air dried ham with Tewkesbury mustard,  croustade of Oxford blue and pear, croustade of brie and caramelised red onion

As we were coming in to this event at a late stage all the menus had been set up already so we took them on and prepared them in our own way - which had gone down well at the pre-wedding tasting with the bride and groom.

Picked up this pear shaped board a few days before - went with the  country  feel of the wedding

Scotch quail eggs

Quail eggs for the scotch quail eggs the night before - I've started so I'll finish!

Choral group performing on the lawn - real music! Amazingly  large & varied repertoire. Made the afternoon so much better!

Roast loin of Old Spot pork with apricot stuffing, crispy crackling  with Tewkesbury mustard mash, baby vegetables and Herefordshire cider jus

Summer vegetable risotto with poached Burford Brown egg and Double Gloucester cheese crisp - we were going to add marrow to the risotto until I saw it just about to be cut - then thought the marrow could make a great bowl for the risotto instead. So we hollowed out the middle and roasted them and the risotto could go in the middle. The poached egg swung quite a few meat eaters too - so we ended up with 12% risotto vs 88% pork.

Then for dessert........

Trio of desserts - Black Forest of Dean cheesecake, hedgrow pavlova  and pink champagne jelly

Originally the idea had been to serve these just on platters at the table for guests to help themselves. At the tasting I had suggested serving all on one plate like this. It does look rather impressive when it goes out!

Black Forest of Dean cheesecake using this recipe  - the griottine cherries might be terribly expensive, but they're so worth it - this was a revelation!  

Hedgerow pavlova

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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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Chef in Venice #2 - Roasted quail with pumpkin puree

The Venice Film Festival, The Carnivale, The Biennale - there's something for every time of the year in Venice. We've been going to the Biennale each time since we first discovered it in 2003.

Strictly speaking it's not a biennale any longer - as the year in between, such as this year, the festival focuses on architecture, exploring the symbiosis between art and architecture, the challenges architects face in the world economy - and the direction in which that guides them (the need for housing to accomodate the growing world population for example), and, of course, their ideas and visions for the future.

The exhibitions ouside the 2 main areas (the Giardini and Arsenale) held in odd palazzos, churches and pavillions are, in our opinion, even better - half of the fun to be had in actually finding where they are in the first place. And after a day trekking around town there's nothing you want to do more than get down to some serious cooking......

Quail was on the menu.

Because they are so small a whole one will do as a starter, but it is quite easy to eat two whole ones for a main course, particularly after so much walking and fresh air.

After drizzling with olive oil and seasoning with salt and pepper I roasted them for around ½ an hour. Quail, like all other meats is best cooked on the bone to conserve both flavour and moistness.

After a couple of minutes resting out the oven I could put the chopped squash in salted water to cook, then take the quail breasts and legs off the bone.

These went back on the tray to rest and the quail carcasses went in a pan with water and on the boil to make a quail stock while we opened the prosecco.

Once the stock had reduced to a ladlefull, I passed it through a sieve, added a glassful of prosecco instead of the usual white wine) and let that reduce a bit, added a bit of butter and balsamic, then dropped in some cooked oyster mushrooms from the day before - it was holiday after all…..

Then time to finish it off. Place the tray of quail in the oven to heat up. Drain the squash, mash it, season it up, then add a dash of olive oil and bit of rosemary from the altana.

For more Venice dishes see here - http://www.thecotswoldfoodyear.com/search/label/venice

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