Pan Asian theme meal near Shipston on Stour

These Pan Asian meals are quickly turning into my favourite events to do - it's the flavours!

Pan de sal bread rolls - turned out better than last time's. You roll them in breadcrumbs on the sides which gives an interesting texture.

Spring rolls with beef and duck

Asian chicken and lettuce wraps (pictured here just before rolling them up. Flavours!

Sesame prawn toast - staple

Main courses

Volcano chicken - pictured here before cooking. so called because the marinade turns it rather dark, then you pour whisky over and flame it as it goes to the table. Pretty impressive - they all sang happy birthday as we took it in. Quite an amusing dish - you sit it on an empty drinks can half filled with stock which steam-cooks it from the inside. While picturing this I must have smudged the lens - hence the rest of the pics, but the view finder's broken so there was no way of knowing till later..... c'est la vie (le sigh)

Salt and pepper squid with szechuan pepper - amazing! The simple things are often the best. 

Blackened cod - with spiralized carrots - vegetable spiralizer gives endless fun!

Crispy shredded beef from this recipe - wow tasted so good. The whole lot went - they loved it.  After frying it  you toss it in a dressing of rice wine vinegar, chilli sauce and soy.

Dessert

Coconut cheesecake adapted from this recipe with mango sorbet - use Nice biscuits for the  base to keep the coconut flavours going. 

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Canapes, asparagus wrapped in parma ham, beef en croute and meringues - 40th birthday catering near Stratford on Avon

Duck satay - the fastest (to be eaten) canapé in the west

Vegetarian alternative version - halloumi satay - so good!

Chorizo and butternut squash filo tart (above before cooking, below finished article)

Home cured trout for another canape - spoon of trout gravadlax and cauliflower carpaccio - another winner!

The starter they had requested - asparagus wrapped in parma ham with hollandaise. We half roasted the asparagus, wrapped it in parma ham and flashed it back in the oven for 5 (well more like 8 by the time everyone had got settled) minutes to finish cooking & crisp the ham. Not shy with the hollandaise - I hate it when you don't get enough.

Fillet of beef en croute - seen here before the pastry lids went on.  Chicken liver pate, leeks and creamed wild mushrooms on top. There was also a vegetarian version, a vegetarian version made at the last minute with no mushrooms (allergy... luckily I took spare pastry to the venue), a gluten free version made with gluten free pastry and 2 no sauce. Phew - plating up was fun. Make sure you have different pastry shapes on top of each so you know what's what.

They had requested this classic dessert - strawberries, meringues and cream all served separately. 

Meringues earlier in the day. "But how is it your's aren't brown?" asked one of the guests as we were plating up.  The secret - turn the oven down as low as it can go and leave the doors open tied with string so they dry out rather than cook. You can also put in the oven, switch off and leave overnight, but there's only so many hours in the day.......

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Thai theme meal for a hen party

A few weeks before we had done a similar meal for the same organiser (but different set of guests). This time round they chose a similar menu - must have been good last time round.

Satay - prawns, pork, chicken & lamb

Prawn crackers - much better when you fry your own. The hens delved straight in.

Thai beef salad - love the purple carrots ......

Seabass poached in soy, chilli and ginger

Thai green curry from this amazing recipe. None of this left - always a good sign!

Thai style trio of desserts - Mango sorbet (amazing how everyone loves sorbet - so refreshing), black rice pudding and pinepple pastries - see links to recipes here.

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Pan asian menu for a hen party

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Thai style lunch near Stratford-on-Avon

A birthday celebratory meal for my longest standing repeat customers and all made fresh once I got to their apartment. They had recently had thai style sea trout in a restaurant in Cirencester and had enjoyed it so much they wanted to try it again, so I tried it with the local trout from the trout farm.

Thai style canape starter

• Shotglass of thai style crab salad
• Prawn and vegetable rice paper wrap
• Spoon of larb - this was a revelation when Adam first made it after his Thai trip - thai fish sauce, minced pork, loads of lime, lemon grass, ginger, fresh mint & coriander thrown in at the last minute. Unbelievable. We served a couple of seconds of this too.
• Thai style chicken satay with satay dip which also went with the prawn wrap

Main course - Trout in coconut milk baked en papillotte with lemon grass, lime, ginger, garlic, basil (fresh from the garden of one of the guests) and coriander

Coconut and lime pilaff rice and thai style stir fried vegetables topped with roasted rice.

Cooking en papillotte means you get all the aromas as you open it at the table. It also keeps the fish wonderfully moist.

Trio of Thai style desserts

• Tab tim grob - a variation on this recipe (maybe red food colouring needs to be more). I left them guessing what this was till the end. Water chestnuts - who would have thought it? It's so light and refreshing - just what you need on a warm day.
• Gluay ping - grilled bananas in palm sugar syrup - popular street food. See more info here . Cooked these on the grill pan while they were eating the main course - charred flavour worked well. Helps if they're slightly underripe.
• Chocolate and mango mousse - a variation on this recipe

With coffee

Khanom Mo Gaeng

This was Hannah's contribution - she had been making this while I packed up 3 other events going on on the Sunday morning.

Again we left them guessing what this was. What? Shallots on top of something sweet? Sounds strange, but tastes so good.

We had started off with this recipe, but among the million other ingredients passing through the kitchen that weekend had forgotten to cook the mung beans, but had some chestnuts we were using for something else so made a little substitution - isn't that how all the best things are found?

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Thai style seabass with pineapple and cucumber salad

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