PARTY PLANNING

We are knee deep in First Communion and Confirmation parties at the moment - it is wonderful to have a happy event to celebrate, filled with hope and promise.  An excuse to dress up and meet up (with some spirituality thrown in) what can be better than than?

In the current economic climate (!) many people are catering these events themselves (although I wonder if it's cheaper,  we probably way over cater when we are doing it ourselves!!)  and I have been asked for advice on how to manage without tearing your hair out!!

In an ideal world you would put the rest of the family into suspended animation for a few days before the party - imagine the house staying as clean as you have left it!!!!  AND being able to concentrate all your cooking attention on the party instead of the day to day meals!

When choosing your menu, first decide whether you want hot or cold or a mixture of both.  I favour a cold spread, but most people prefer to have a mixture - in this post I will cater for the cold camp!

Protein - the old reliables are always acceptable, roast sliced beef, turkey and ham* are lovely. Salmon is one of my favourites, particularly when portioned and served on a platter covered in a lettuce and sugar snap salad, with a dill dressing.  At the moment I'm really enthusiastic about serving tandoori chicken breasts, which are marinated for a few hours and roasted a day in advance - again these look great served on a platter strewn with green leaves.  For the veggies, although I don't generally make a specific vegetarian dish, many of the salads will contain cheese and nuts, so I reckon their protein intake is taken care of, and I don't feel too guilty!
*try cooking the ham in cola - it tastes great

Then come the salads - these come into a few categories:

Essentials (as in I'd be in trouble if these didn't appear!!)

Potato Salad (see here)
Caesar Salad
Coleslaw/Carrot Salad  (see here)
Rice Salad


Popular (these disappear in no time)

Beetroot (see here)
Bean  (see here)
Tomato
Pasta
Broccoli  (see here) Avoca call this their most popular salad, so perhaps it belongs in Essentials!
Green  (see here)

Ring the changes

Tabbouleh
Onion
Couscous (see here)
Any one that takes your fancy while reading blogs/cookbooks!!!

There are plenty more salads here on Brownieville Girl - just follow your own taste.

The most important factor when deciding is that 90% of the dish must be able to be prepared in advance - there is no point in being frazzled when the guests arrive.


One of the all time favourites is the Pesto Rice Salad (pictured at the front of this photo), it is best prepared in advance and  tastes delicious.

This recipe comes from Queen Delia's Summer Collection (in my opinion one of her top three).  I have made it with my own pesto, but have come to the decision that if you buy a really good fresh pesto, it tastes almost as good, but the saving in effort and money make it well worth using.

Pesto Rice Salad

225ml     risotto rice (arborio is good) - measured like liquid
tub          very best fresh pesto you can find (tesco finest is quite good)
450ml     vegetable stock, simmering
1             lemon, juiced
2 tbsp     best olive oil
25g        Parmesan cheese, shavings
              basil leaves to decorate
1 tsp       salt

Place the rice in a saucepan and stir in a quarter of the pesto, until every grain is coated.
Pour the simmering stock over the rice.
Place on the hob and bring to boiling point stirring with a wooden spoon.
Add the salt and give a final stir.
Put on a lid and bring the heat down to low, allow to cook for 20 mins.

When ready pour on the lemon juice, olive oil and remaining pesto sauce, and combine.
Taste and season as required.
Pour into a pretty serving dish and allow to cool.
Before serving scatter the basil leaves and Parmesan shavings over the top.

Enjoy.

WHY RANDOM IS WONDERFUL

Queen Delia comes up trumps again!  The wonderful Dom has challenged us to randomly choose a recipe from the gazillion recipes we all have, and just give it a go.  This dish is one of the reasons that Dom's Random Recipe Challenge is so wonderful.  This month Delia Smith's "Summer Collection" came to hand when I randomly chose my book, this is a book that I used alot when I first bought it, and I would still refer to it from time to time - well the book popped open at page 38/39, so my choices were the Tomato, Mozzarella and Basil Salad (which I have made time and time again) and to Marinated Mozzarella with Avocado (which I have skipped over time and time again!!).  The reason I skipped over the recipe?  I just couldn't get a marinated avocado salad to work in my head - I imagined horrible black pieces of slimy avocado ruining the beautiful cheese.  I should, of course, have trusted Delia, I think in all my time cooking, she has only let me down once (and maybe that was just my wonky taste!!!).

The salad was a beautiful smooth texture, which works well with a selection of salads, many of which will be crunchy.  The fruit and cheese melded in together, helped by the kick of the dressing.  I always remember Nigella's comments about avocados moisturising from within, whenever I eat them, and find myself glowing with health and smugness (for a few moments anyway!!).  Try this salad, it's a little bit different, totally delicious and will do wonders for your skin and hair - happy days!!

Marinated Mozzarella with Avocado

110g (4oz)       Mozzarella Cheese - the best you can get.
1                       Avocado - nicely ripe (I used two)
1/4                   Red Pepper - cut into fine slices
1                      Handful of basil leaves - Delia says to use 18!!
2                      scallions (spring onions) finely chopped

Dressing

1                     small clove of garlic
1                     tsp sea salt
1                     rounded tsp of dry mustard powder
1                     dessert spoon white wine vinegar
5                     dessert spoons of extra virgin olive oil
1                     dessert spoon snipped chives
salt and pepper


Prepare the salad about 2 hours in advance. 
Slice the mozzarella into 5mm (1/4 inch) slices.
Peel, destone and slice the avocado into thin slices.
Arrange the cheese and avocado in alternate overlapping slices on a pretty plate.
Now scatter the finely sliced pepper and basil over the salad.
Make up the dressing by either grating the garlic or pureeing it with the salt.
Mix all the dressing ingredients together in a jar.
Pour over the mozzarella and avocado.
Cover and allow the flavours to combine for two hours.
Serve and enjoy!

Thank you very much for the links and suggestions for my son's culinary adventure - unfortunately the stove in his apartment broke, pretty much immediately after I posted the recipes - and they haven't been able to persuade the landlord to replace it yet!!  Sod's (or Murphy's) Law!!

FANTASTIC FISH WITH TAPENADE

This is a great recipe to have under your belt.  It involves more shopping than preparation.  It tastes wonderful - fresh, vibrant and oh so tasty.  It makes a fantastic dinner party dish - totally made in advance.  The tapenade can be made up to a week before you need it.  Just spread it over your fish (cod, haddock, hake, actually any thick white fish) pop it in the oven and wait for deliciousness!!

The recipe comes from Delia's Winter Collection, and I can see why she put in that book, it would bring some much needed sunshine to a cold winter's meal.  It also makes for a wonderfully light, tasty summer meal too!

Other than the fresh basil, the ingredients can all be kept for ages, making this a great meal to have up your sleeve for when the basil is cheap or when you have little time to prepare for visitors.

Sun Dried Tomatoe Tapenade

1              jar sun-dried tomatoes (reserve the oil)
1              tin pitted black olives (175g) drained
30g/1 oz   basil leaves (this is alot of basil!)
1 tsp         (heaped) green peppercorns in brine, rinsed and drained
2               big garlic cloves
1               tin anchovies (50g)
3 tsp        (heaped) capers, drained and dried.
3 tbsp       oil from the tomatoes.*

Place all the ingredients in the food processor and blitz into a coarse paste.

Spread your fish of choice with the tapinade and bake for about 20 - 25 minutes.

I find that the tapenade will be enough to serve about 12 portions, and that it keeps really well in a jar in the fridge for quite some time if you keep it covered with oil.

*The rest of the oil is great in a salad dressing.

SIMPLE SAUCE

As you are all well aware by now, I am an enthusiastic subscriber to the "maximum taste, minimum effort" school of cooking - and this sauce could be the school's emblem!!!

This is a redcurrant jelly, mint and orange sauce and it goes beautifully with roast lamb, wonderfully with lamb cutlets and is simply heavenly in a lamb sandwich!!!!!!

I use it to glaze  lamb chops (cutlets) before I cook them on the barbecue or ridged pan, and then add some more just before I serve them.  I use it instead of butter in a sandwich - virtuous deliciousness.  It is just sooo much nicer than mint sauce to serve with roast lamb, particularly if your lamb has been studded with garlic, rosemary and lemon.

The one stipulation is that you use a good quality redcurrant jelly, with as high a fruit content as possible - it really makes a difference, I have made the mistake of using an own brand jar (they had run out of the good stuff) and would never do it again!!  This recipe is a "Delia"!



Redcurrant, Orange and Mint Sauce

4 tbsp           redcurrant jelly
Finely grated zest from 1 medium orange
2 tbsp           finely chopped mint

Place these ingredients in a bowl and stir well , making sure that there are no lumps.
Decant to a serving bowl.
Wait for the ohhhs and ahhhs!!

TORTELICIOUS!!!

I discovered glucose liquid for the first time at the supermarket a few weeks ago .... not too exciting you might think, but in my world VERY exciting, I could at last try Delia's Truffle Torte.

Every year at the start of the build up to Christmas, the first thing I do is unearth my Christmas cookery books (except Nigella's which is on the go all year) and every year I come upon the picture of a delicious looking chocolate torte in Delia Smith's Christmas and decide to make it..... then every year I search in vain for glucose syrup.  NOW can you understand how exciting my discovery was?

Next I just needed an occasion to serve it (a bit rich for just us) and my sister provided just the event (Thanks Sis!)  It turns out that this torte is my nephew's favorite dessert of all time, and he is only 5!  Pretty sophisticated tastes when you consider that it contains pretty much only 75% chocolate, double cream and rum!!

A word of warning, this torte is very, very rich and most people would only be able to manage a small portion (excepting said nephew who scoffed about 1/3 of it).  I think it would be beautiful served with some fresh raspberries and some sour cream.

The next time I make this I intend to line the tin with ginger nut biscuits, I think they will give the torte a nice edge.

Truffle Torte

Line the bottom of a 23cm spring form cake tin with parchment and brush the sides with a tasteless oil.

5 tbsp     glucose syrup
5 tbsp     rum
450g       high cocoa content chocolate
570ml     double cream
75g         biscuits (amaretti or ginger)


Crush the biscuits and scatter over the base of the cake tin.
Put the chocolate, glucose and rum in a bowl over a pan of simmering water.
When melted stir until smooth and leave aside to cool for 5 minutes.
In a separate bowl beat the cream until slightly thickened.
Fold half of the cream into the chocolate mixture, then fold this mixture into the rest of the cream.
Spoon evenly over the crushed biscuits in the cake tin.
Cover with cling film and leave in the fridge overnight (at least)
To serve, run a palette knife around the edge, slightly loosen the spring form.  Turn the torte onto a serving plate.
Dust with cocoa if you wish (I didn't) and serve.

Enjoy!

AN OLDIE BUT A GOODIE

I really enjoyed the Delia Smith programme which was on recently, it charted her work through the decades, and was a really interesting social history, as well as culinary history.

In the programme which covered the 80's (I think!) she spoke about a chocolate dessert that was one of her most popular recipes, seemingly everyone had served it at their dinner parties ..... and I hadn't even tried it!!  Well I couldn't have that!  So at the first opportunity I took out my incredibly battered copy of Delia's "Complete Illustrated Cookery Course" and located the recipe for "Squidgy Chocolate Log" ..... Chocolate Roulade stuffed with chocolate mousse stuffed with cream .... how had it escaped me!!

It was a truly decadent dessert, and maybe just a tad over the top .... but it was really, really good. 

I had a minor panic when I took the roulade part out of the tin (which I had measured and was the prescribed size) and I thought it wasn't big enough to roll, but I should have known Ms Smith never lets us down, it actually meets rather than rolls - but that was fine, so panic unnecessary!


Squidgy Chocolate Log

Roulade

6 Large eggs, separated
150g    caster sugar
50g      cocoa powder

Filling

225g    dark chocolate (I would say 75% max)
2          Large eggs, separated
225ml  cream (double)
2 tbsp   warm water

Preheat oven to 180 C
Line and grease a tin 29cm x 18cm x 2.5cm


Start with the filling.
Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of lightly simmering water.
Remove when melted add the warm water, and stir with wooden spoon until smooth.
Beat the egg yolks into the chocolate. 
Whisk the egg whites until stiff and fold into the chocolate mixture.
Cover the bowl and refrigerate for about an hour.

Meanwhile  proceed with the roulade.
Whisk the egg whites.(I use the bowl from the last lot of egg whites)  Put aside.
In another bowl whisk the egg yolks until they start to thicken.
Add the sugar and continue to whisk until the mixture thickens a bit more.
Next whisk the sieved cocoa into the yolks.
Fold the egg whites into the yolk and cocoa mixture.
Pour into the prepared tin.
Bake for 20 - 25 minutes until springy.
Remove from oven and allow to cool in the tin, don't worry about shrinkage.

When the roulade is cold, turn it onto a sheet of greaseproof paper which has been dusted liberally with icing sugar (although not quite as liberally as mine was!!)  Peel away the cake tin lining paper- carefully.  Then spread the chocolate mousse filling over the roulade.  Now whip the cream to soft peaks and spread over the mousse.  Finally roll up to make a log shape.

Enjoy!