All vegetarian buffet lunch year 4 - new cakes & salad

4th year running - can't be bad!

As they let me come up with menu choices I try and add in new things each year. This year there were 2 vegans as well - so we had a few different things for them as well.

• Black forest cupcakes Who can resist the old classics? From recipe here.

• Blackberry and apple shortcake

• 

I raided a few recipes from over here - the first being this one. If you want a recipe you know is going to work go for one on a blog - you know it's tried and tested :) I just added blackberries as well.

• Individual tirimisu cheesecakes - quite possibly the ultimate cheesecake flavour!

Base
250g Amaretti biscuits

125g Unsalted butter

Filling

270g Ricotta

270g Marscapone

120g Caster sugar

2 1/2 Eggs

180 ml Creme fraiche

2 1/2 tbsp Cornflour

2 - 3 tsp Coffee essence

2 - 3 tsp Tia Maria

For method see normal recipe. The amaretti biscuits seem to soak up more butter than others - so you need more butter. I also did a vegan version - with nice biscuits and the same kind of filling but using alpro soy dessert with coffee essence & tia maria set with gelatine.

• Vegan beetroot and chocolate cake. From recipe here. Last minute. com topping was sweetened soy milk with vanilla thickened with cornflour.

• Pineapple puff pastry tarts - "That was lush!" said the guy we had helping us with the washing up. Eevryone had to try one. He was right. They were! Recipe again from here. I tried adding a bit of lemon curd under the pineapple slices. Seemed to work well. Other than that - maybe you could try frangipane. These literally came out of the oven and went straight on the road - can't beat that for freshness. So busy didn't manage to get a photo of finished tart - this pic actually comes ©Ms Marmitelover from this event we did.

• Cauliflower, fennel, red onion and radish salad. Earlier in the year at a dinner party we were serving I had made a cauliflower and fennel coleslaw when those were the only ingredients we had left, and we had found ourselves with a little bit of extra time as guests sat down late. It seemed to work very well, and I tried it out as a salad here bound with mustard vinaigrette. A few basil leaves finish it off.

• Benedict bars
Another hit. These were the two off-cut pieces. A photo at dusk earlier tonight - now you see why I'm a chef not a food photographer. Another recipe via Lucy made in this case with hedgerow jelly from Dove Cottage in Broadway made from berries picked from the local fields.

Related posts

All vegetarian buffet 2008 (whole host of vegetarian sandwich ideas)

All vegetarian buffet 2009 (new vegetarian ideas + vegan cakes)

All vegetarian buffet 2010 (vegetarian salad ideas - my favourite was the tex-mex)

2

Wedding catering near Ross on Wye and Great Whitcombe near Gloucester

At the end of May we catered for a wedding near Ross on Wye where the groom ran a farm in his spare time and had kept one of his Highland cows for his own wedding. A few months on it was his son's turn to get married and we used the same beef (some cuts which weren't used last time were frozen) to make matador pie.

Smoked salmon terrine starter - what a classic

Matador pie with grilled butternut squash, rocket, feta and pommegranate salad and new potatoes with chives.

Meanwhile..... over in Great Whitcombe near the Roman villa we were cooking for a wedding of 141 on another farm.

Going for the healthy option. The bride and groom had requested crudites and homemade breadsticks with hoummous and dips.

Grilled mohito prawns with marinated vegetable salad - from our James Bond theme night.

Halloumi wrapped in fresh vine leaves (the came from Dove Cottage in Broadway) - an idea from MsMarmitelover at Camp Bestival.

4 whole roast lambs from Home Farm, Bredons Norton. Started carving in the catering marquee here while the guests were eating the starter and the rest of the team plated up the accompanying salads before wheeling up one of the roasting machines to the marquee to carve in front of the guests. This always adds a bit of theatre, and that way you can see it is whole lamb.

2 lambs on one roasting machine

Some of the wedding guests provided half of the desserts - they brought along their own homemade cakes. A couple of them needed a little finishing off - like this one. We were in charge of the strawberries and cream (such a popular wedding choice) which accompanied it.

SS - Susie and Sam, your bride and groom!

1

Meze starter for a hen party near Stratford-on-Avon and trout and asparagus en papilotte

You've got to love hen parties! They had a special guest at this one - didn't say much though, some people are just 2 dimensional I guess.
The other one serving them cocktails in the lounge however, was much more.... er 3D and talkative. It must have been warm in the house though - he wasn't wearing much.







They had asked for a meze style starter served in the lounge while they had drinks.

Hoummous

Baba ganoush

Aubergines are cooked on the gas top. First saw them being cooked like this by Madonna's personal cook. Totally transforms them & gives it the smoky flavour. Used this great recipe again.

Olives

Stuffed vine leaves

Grilled halloumi

Spicy meatballs

Tzatzkiki

Homemade taramasalata

As the main course was trout I had a few trout roes on hand. Taramaslata is just one of those things I'd never tried making till about 4:15pm on Saturday. But wow - it's so amazing. So different to those lurid supermarket versions you can buy. I mixed the fried trout roe with smoked salmon and made a smoked salmon taramaslata - adapting this recipe (I used cream rather than cream cheese).

Watermelon, feta, red onion and olive salad

Homemade flat bread and grissini

First time I had made the breadsticks - how did it take so long? I often see shop brought ones in the holiday house kitchens that we work in - people must have brought them for the night before. Making your own is so much better.
These ones were sesame, onion seed and some dusted with ras-el-hanout. I also did the same varieties of crisp flat breads (below) rolled out thin so you can snap & share. There was also a sun dried tomato, olive and herbes de provence foccacia.
As we had 3 other events going on, this was one of the last jobs to do and time was running by then, so I forgot to dock the first flat bread - bottom right. It bubbles if you don't.
Trout and asparagus en pappilote
Trout with asparagus, fennel, red onion, dill, cherry tomatoes, ginger, garlic and a generous splash of vermouth.
With grilled vegetables - aubergine, courgette, field mushrooms, peppers and globe artichoke slice.
Ever since the underground food bloggers conference where Ms Marmitelover served up spaghetti con vognole en papillote I've been hooked. I've also just noticed I had the greaseproof/ foil combo the wrong way round. Oops. You live and learn......


Grilled butternut squash, pommegranate, rocket and coconut salad
This also went with the trout. Normally it's with feta, but as they had feta with the meze I shaved some fresh coconut over this instead. They seemed to love it - another winning dish.

1

Sweet potato, feta and coriander ravioli

Kneading pasta dough? What a revelation that was all those years ago. My first pasta attempts at 14 struggled to stay together and were rather rough - and I learned a bit by trial and error. The right flour helps too. Also semolina to dust the table - prevents sticking.

Saffron pasta dough:

350g flour ('OO' or strong white - there's some great chefstalk on the subject here)
4 eggs
Saffron steeped in hot water then chilled out
1 tsp salt

Filling:

Roast sweet potato
Red onion sauteed in butter & cooled
Feta diced
Coriander (fresh)
Ground coriander seed
Lemon zest


Related post:

Homemade marmite XO farfalle poached in miso

0

A few salads for an all vegetarian buffet lunch delivery

So I got back from holiday and had just 2 days to prepare for 14 events over a long weekend. 5 of them were the all vegetarian lunch buffet 3rd year in a row.

Water melon, feta and olive salad
May sound odd at first but it tastes amazing. This is a Nigella classic which I found looking for new salads at the start of the barbecue season.

Lebanese salad (fatoush)
Simple ingredients are often the best. Peppers, cucumber, tomato, red onion, feta, olives, mint, plenty of lemon juice and olive oil with baby gem leaves.

Green curry rice noodle and vegetable salad
Shredded vegetables on the madolin sweated. Mixed with thai green curry/ coconut dressing plus the other neccessaries - garlic, chilli, ginger, coriander. As it is a buffet salad it helps if you crunch up the noodles a bit before cooking so you don't end up with huge long strands - easier to eat - go on be kind.

Tex-mex salad in crisp taco bowls
Red gem lettuce, black beans (plenty of), red onion, tomato, sweetcorn, mozzarella (becuase I had it - lots of other cheeses you could use), olives, capers, spicy salsa. Idea is you squeeze the lime over before you eat - saves the bowl going soft.
Make the bowls like this.
I missed photographing the oriental style stir-fry cous cous salad - so much else going on that Sunday morning - a large breakfast delivery and another lunch delivery - and that was only hours after finishing Saturday's events. No point in doing things by half.

These were in addition to the sandwiches, talking of which, the pickled wild mushroom (and bean puree) open I tried with pickled walnut on top. Another dimension.
As I delivered the last one they booked again for next years. So bit of research for some new dishes next year.

Related posts (with lots of recipe links)

All vegetarian lunch buffet 2009

All vegetarian lunch buffet 2008

4

Meat Free Monday #23 - Courgette and wild nettle fritters with balsamic roast cherry tomatoes and nettle pesto

So I posted that on Sunday in between loads of washing tea towels and chef jackets - and got the following response - always good to hear from guests after the event.
A little walk from the kitchen down the old railway line is a great long nettle patch. This is just a small part - much more grown up now. From growing in the ground to cooked in c. 20 minutes - can't get fresher.
Grated courgettes, cooked nettles, bit of nigella's pancake mix (no sugar) to bind, ground cumin, coriander and chilli.
On roasted celery and peppers.


Related posts

Cooking with nettles
Other nettle dishes

0

Meat Free Monday #20 - Fennel nicoise with quinoa

Ok fennel I take it all back - this was just one of the best things I tasted all year.
Slow convert to fennel it has to be said. As I was in the transition between sleep and wakefulness early on Monday morning my eyes drifted over to the book shelf and....... Delia Smith's Summer Collection. Well you know - she is the nation's aunty. Couldn't help feeling this would be good. It was. Very. I want to make again straight away. With the electric grill so quick & easy too and no oil needed on the fennel either.

Nicoise was baby plum tomatoes, olives, mini capers, spring onion, basil, olive oil, salt.

Taste of the summer.

1

Meat Free Monday #16 - Red rice salad with grilled asparagus (and garlic mushrooms, grilled aubergine and avocado with walnuts)

What's this - a Meat Free Monday post actually on the day?
This was 8 hours ago. Finally found the camera lead. I have a whole load of Meat Free Monday posts to catch up on - the last few weeks have just been so busy.

I had wanted to try a red rice salad for a while (big rice fan). Between emails and lists I fixed a quick lunch utilsing the last of the asparagus stalks (tips were used for a canape) and an avocado left from a chicken and avocado salad.
Garlic mushrooms too - with garlic butter left from making garlic bread and some grilled aubergines and butternut squash with mint and lemon juice.
I tried out the electric health grill. It's sloped so the oil drips out and is caught. No smoke too.




Red rice salad

Cooked red rice
Sliced black olives
Sliced sundried tomato
Diced raw fennel
Lemon juice (lots)
Olive oil
Mint
Parsley

But you could add what you liked really.

Maybe enough for 2 but I had walked up an appetite in the Malvern hills the day before.

2

Meat Free Monday #13 - Marmite XO farfalle poached in miso with shitake and kale - umami fest

The thing I like about Twitter is you get the news just so much faster than any other medium - at least a day or two faster than the newspaper, and even faster than the radio bulletins.
Before Marmite XO had even gone on sale it was being tweeted by one particular marmite lover as it was being served at the first Underground Midnight Feast - note: pays to be one of the marmarati. The Marmarati? Well they also seem to have converted Donal to the 'dark' side (i.e. the marmite side). So it was time to try it out. I had read the underground midnight feast post while I was letting some pasta dough rest in the fridge. I went back to rolling out the dough thinking of marmite. Marmite. Pasta. Marmite pasta? Now there was an idea. But google marmite pasta and all you come up with is pasta with marmite sauce (a student classic by the sound of it) but what about mixing it in the pasta dough - after all you can do it with everything else - beetroot, nettles, blue curacao, squid ink, spinach, saffron, chocolate to name a few (though not at the same time).

Well last Monday I picked up a jar of XO and had a go.

200g OO flour
2 eggs
1 heaped tsp Marmite XO (I saw you licking that spoon!)

It comes out the colour of gjetost and you get marmite flavour hands as you knead the pasta dough - yum!

Marmite as we all know is rich in umami so what about a umami fest - a real pick-me-up? That is what I ended up with - miso, shitake mushrooms and kale also being rich in umami.

I had been wanting to try farfalle for a while. Unfortunately no sign of the fluted pasta wheel (so many venues, so many kitchens - it gets confusing), so after rolling out the pasta to thin lasagne-like strips I just cut them into rectangles and pinched them in the middle. If you cook them in the miso they soak a bit of the flavour too hopefully, and any marmite flavour they release is kept - best of both worlds. Oh and and its saves time and washing up - not that these things matter ;)

Related posts

Other Meat Free Monday dishes

2

Roast asparagus with chickpeas, almonds and tahini dressing

8 very different kitchens in one week - is that a new record?

I served this one at a lovely house near Stroud last Thursday. As the guests had a young girl asleep right next to the dining room they ate in the kitchen instead right behind me. This was the second time I had cooked for them - I remember them going through to the lounge after the meal last year and planning this week away to make sure I could do it - always a good sign!

This is a vegetarian version of the roast asparagus, sauteed tiger prawns and oyster sauce dressing. But now I've tried this version out I'm not sure which I like more. I took the original combination from Heidi's 101 cookbooks, just adapted the presentation. For the dressing I added the lemon juice, but also soy and used red onion instead of garlic. Also some fresh coriander. As the tahini is quite thick the warm water helps to let it down. Roasting asparagus, as I was telling the guests as I served it, is my favourite way of cooking it - boiling it means all the flavour seeps into the water which invariably you throw away. This way all the flavour stays inside. Totally clean plates afterwards, so I think they agreed.......

Related posts

Roast asparagus with sauteed tiger prawns and oyster sauce dressing
1001 Kitchen Tips #48 - Peeling asparagus
Grilled asparagus with parmesan
Grilled asparagus with scallop and prawn fricasse
Asparagus and gruyere tart
Asparagus and hoummous on new potato
Asparagus soup shotglass

Roasted Asparagus

0