Valentine's Dinner in Halesowen, Birmingham

...'cos  ......

Life is busy! It certainly was for the couple in Birmingham that I cooked for on Valentine's Day this year - they had only moved in to their house three weeks before. Both doctors, one of them was on nights, the other on days. 

Then there comes the pressure of what do for Valentine's Day. Go out to a restaurant and you're just one table of 2 out of a whole roomful, whereas, when you're dining in your home it's all about you.... and your other half. Even better when you don't have to spend all of that time in the kitchen though!

Heart shaped bread rolls
Starter - Salad of herb roast salmon, king prawns and mango
Main course - Involtini of chicken, brie and apples, heart shaped fondant potato, french beans and roast asparagus
Dessert - Chocolate fondant with vanilla ice cream (it's a romantic dinner winner!)

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Summer garden party in Blockley, Gloucestershire

Strawberry tower. Stuck together with chocolate. Make your own eton mess! Was making this while they ate the main course. Patience much.

e had done a similar event for this couple last year as a house warming party for their friends and family when they they moved into their new house. Also a Christmas canape party. This time round it was for their neighbours.

'Chinese hat' marquee - by Good Intents - I love the chinese hat style.

Cones of goats cheese with beetroot relish (sat in rock salt) - ice cream cones....... with a difference!

Thai style caramel pork - always goes down so well every time we have served it. This completely went!
Thyme flowers on top of prawns - fresh from their herb garden. 10 different types of canape - if you're going to do it do it in style!

Did not adjust the brightness on this pic - it really was this bright!
Home smoked chicken on heart shaped sweet potato scones with sweetcorn relish

Potato, red onion and rosemary (from my garden) foccacia to go on the tables with pesto pinwheel bread

Buffet main course

Charlie's buffet - snapped before the guests arrived ;)

Puff pastry and parma ham wrapped asparagus

Thyme flowers also featured on the salmon.........

Triple chocolate mousse cake from Martha Stewar's recipe - but we made it into a large one rather than individuals. This is a wow cake - so light and fluffy!
There was also caramelised apricot tart and shotglasses of Pimm's Jelly (seen in the background in the pic above) - don't want them to go hungry!

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Wedding salad style buffet lunch 

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Delivery wedding buffet 2009

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Jalapeno poppers and mango glazed cod for a Mexican themed menu

This goes back to 7th June. Theme menus are great - it's always good to try out new things, but it's always amazing how much preparation there is and how long it takes - so many components. So busy we ran out of time for taking many pics (as usual)......

Appetisers

Jalapeno poppers

Used this recipe. Jalapeno poppers where have you been all my life? A must-do-again thing!

Cheesy nachos
Salmon ceviche in a tortilla cone

These are the tortilla cones - a labour of love. Trick is to soak them in water briefly so you can mold them into shape before baking. Do a lot more than you need!

Garlic flatbread

Mexican spiced chicken and prawn skewers 

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Mango glazed cod 

That time when you wish you had one spare! Used this mango marinade recipe

Taco shells with mexican beef and tex-mex chicken with bowls of tomatoes, onion rings, salsa, sweetcorn. guacamole, iceberg, cucumber and cheese so guests can make their own tacos how they like them!

Mexican style grilled leg of lamb with mohito dressing

Sides

Tex-mex salad

like this one from a few years ago

Spicy Mexican rice

Lime and coriander sweet potato wedges

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Trio of fish starter for the annual dinner for the Royal Naval Association Tewkesbury branch

This is becoming  a bit of a fixture - the 3rd we have done for them - can't be bad! Nice venue - only thing missing is a kitchen. All we have is a room and some tables. Luckily I live almost across the road so I could use the kitchen at my house plus chafing dishes in our wannabe-kitchen. The other folk who were supping pints in the bar thought I was cooking it all outside in the van..... well there's an idea!

Trio of fish starter - tiger prawns in garlic butter, salmon rillette wrapped in smoked salmon and shot glass of smoked haddock chowder.

So I came up with this trio of fish starters - always trying a different variation. The smoked haddock chowder in a shot glass had gone down so well at an event we did just before Christmas we had guests coming in to the kitchen begging for more. And garlic prawns - well everyone loves those. We had those frying in a wok on a camping gas ring - the aroma filling the bar making everyone hungry.

The pork tenderloin en croute went out so fast no photo. There is a dessert pic on the way - once my handy assistant has his iphone repaired......

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Pan Asian theme meal

"Had a good Christmas?" Everyone asks when they get back to work in January. Makes you laugh - do they not think that in the hospitality world things carry on as normal during Christmas and New Year, just much busier? The guests I served on Christmas Day actually had to remind me that it was Christmas Day - one day was blending into another.

Served this Pan Asian meal the day before New Years eve. Of all the theme meals I have done I think this one was the most involved - so much preparation - but so worth it.

Homemade pan de sal

From this recipe - you roll it into a rope, roll that in breadcrumbs and then cut with a blunt pastry scraper so you get a rustic top.

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Starters served on platters on the table for guests to serve themselves

Black sesame salmon balls

From this recipe - so delicious! Steamed them over boiling water in batches. Found the black sesame seeds in East and West - a great find of a shop in Cheltenham.

 Red bean paste sesame balls (v) - made the same way as the salmon version above but with red beans.

Vegetable tempura (v) (never got a photo of that - in the rush it almost flew from the fryer to the table)

Tuna tataki with ponzu

 Tilapia larb - based on this recipe. More usually larb is made with ground pork - it is possibly one of the best tasting things - this was a fish verison and equally as good! I topped it with toased rice - an interesting texture & flavour. "Ooh - I've never seen that" said one of the guests as I was preparing things.

 Avocado and vegetable rice paper wraps with peanut dipping sauce(v)

 Main course

Blackened cod

Red thai seabass baked in banana leaf
Had to wait in the rain outside the Rannee supermarket in Cheltenham to pick up these leaves. Love this place - if you need to go out for a few minutes you just close up the shop: a refreshing change. 

Sesame crusted tofu with broccoli and shiitake mushrooms

Indonesian (vegetarian) fried rice - with some of the red curry paste from the seabass

Stir fried bok choi, sprouts, snow peas and onion

Soy bean and sesame noodle salad

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Trio of desserts

Mini coconut pancakes - used this recipe. Also sprinkled with a dusting of mango powder

Lychee and pomegranate panna cotta - used this recipe

Shotglass of mango sorbet - a variation on the orange sorbet recipe

Coconut pancakes must have been good - one of the guests said they didn'tnormally do desserts. But then she came back for another of the coconut pancakes.... and then another!

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Coffee, tea and homemade pistachio barfi (was I really peeling pistachio nuts at 1am or was it my imagination?)

Dear James

Thank you so much for the wonderful evening you created for us all at Oak House and Stables on Sunday 30 December.  We had a really memorable evening and your food was delicious.

We are looking forward to more trips to the Cotswolds and will definitely ask you to cater for us again.

With best wishes for good health and happiness in 2013.

MS

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Italian themed wedding buffet delivery in Blockley, Gloucestershire

With half of the guests being Italian there was an Italian theme going on with this wedding buffet we delivered  to Blockley yesterday.

Pesto pinwheel bread - with 2 weddings and 4 dinner parties every  baking tray I own was being used by the time I was making this on Saturday morning so some of them went in yorkshire pudding tins - works just as well - they came out looking like pesto pinwheel yorkshires. 

Rosemary flatbread with blue cheese, grapes and honey

Roast Home Farm silverside of beef with parmesan, figs and toasted almonds

Herb roast salmon - raw ready to go in the oven. Nice and colourful no?

Herb roasted salmon with beluga lentil, orange and feta salad 

Saffron poached chicken with French bean, artichoke and red onion salad

Artichoke and pinenut filo tart (not shown)

Aubergine caponata (not shown)

Ensalata

Grilled butternut squash, spinach, beetroot and toasted seed salad - like this one

New potato, roast pepper and sweetcorn salad

After the above wedding it was on this one at Overbury Village Hall - and yes that is sunshine!

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Summer wedding buffet at Upper Court, near Tewkesbury Gloucestershire

When you run out of blue tack to put the menu up in the kitchen........

A buffet menu with a thousand things - we started putting the final touches on this after the wedding breakfast was out. 

Whole poached salmon with Pesto Mayonnaise

Assiette of cold meats

Mini quiches (vegetarian option included)

Homemade Sausage Rolls (approx 60)

Homemade Pork Pies (approx 60)

Mini pizzas (vegetarian option to be included)

Vegetable sushi rolls with wasabi and soy

Small selection of cheese

Potato salad

Spinach, cherry tomato, red onion, feta, olive

Assiette of open sandwiches inc no pork & vegetarian

2 x Gluten free sandwiches

Barbecue chicken legs

Bread & Butter

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Strawberry tartlets

Eton mess

The great thing about Upper Court is we can use the herb garden too when we do weddings there - fennel was rampant, so that went by the sides, and sage flowers on top.

Pork pie

Pork pie sliced. This photo is an old one,  but now I add some pink salt to the mix which helps it stay pink. 

Barbecued chicken legs from this recipe - with added soy sauce

Sushi

Cutting strawberries for eton mess - we do separate layers of berries & coulis, whipped cream with vanilla and sugar and crushed meringue on top so guests can mix it themselves. 

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Open sandwich with roasted tandoori salmon and courgette carpaccio

A gazillion events, loads of photos, no time. 

Keeping it simple - this was from a lunch buffet we served a couple of weeks ago. Marinade the courgette in salt, lemon juice, thyme & olive oil

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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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Scallop, prawn and salmon with vegetable noodles and whisky en papillote

Wednesday 14th March 2012 - the epicality of this day will be long remembered. 25 events in one week - busiest ever Cheltenham March race week and the Wednesday was the epicentre.

The event I cooked for was a repeat booking from the year before at the White House. Although the house normally fits 12 - 14 we managed to squeeze in 25.

Scallops, tiger prawns (raw), salmon and vegetable noodles (carrot, celariac, leek) with tarragon, dill, ginger  & whisky.

Raw parsnip and pear salad bound in vinaigrette on the  side. Oscar  who had been working with me a few days this week had got me on to raw salads - great for an energy boost.

Pass the parcel?

The foil lined parchment btw is from Lakeland - a little tip from this event which seems like years ago......

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