CVL Bakes Caters for a Dinner Party

Good afternoon All!

On Sunday I catered for a dinner party. This was such a lovely experience as it was all my own food. Not in the sense that I was cooking them food that I bought for myself, I'm not mad. I love my food too much to share it. No, this was food I'd bought for the job obviously.

This was lovely as I spent the morning cooking it all, as it couldn't be made any later than on the day and then I delivered it all and served it. This was lovely as it was really hands-on and I was able to talk to a bunch of really lovely people and serve them food that I though was delicious and homely.

The menu was;

- Parma Ham and Melon Nibbles to start.

- Chicken with mashed potatoes, peas and cauliflower.

- Salmon with couscous and soured cream and chive dip.

- To finish, Pavlova with whipped cream, strawberries, blueberries and blackberries.

This dinner was for 8 people and I loved seeing all that food, sitting there on the table, begging to be eaten. And eaten it was! It was a lovely day and I really enjoyed it and hope the people I made it for did too?

I am now going to list through the following recipes on how to make the dishes listed above.

- Parma Ham and Melon Nibbles to start.

This is so much a recipe as it is a natural combination. It is too damn simple to be classified as a recipe, so natural combination is what I have come to. It is really yummy. The saltiness of the parma ham compliments the sweetness of the melon and they work so very well. Talk about mouth watering.

What you will need;

- 2 Melons, peeled and cubed
- 1 pack of Parma Ham
- Some cocktail sticks

What you want to do;

Colour coded knife and board, specifically for fruit :D You've gotta enjoy the little things

- Basically it is pretty simple, what you need to do is cut the melons in half and then cut those halves in half. You want to scoop out the seeds and stuff and then chop the quarters into slices, then cubes and boom, the melon is done!

- Wrap the melon in parma ham around the melon and secure it with a cocktail stick and then you are done! Honestly they are so good.

- Chicken with mashed potatoes, peas and cauliflower.

Action shot of me taking the temperatures of the chicken.

- For the chicken you want to put the chicken breasts into a frying pan with a little rapeseed oil and butter. Cook until one side has gone this deep, golden colour. Once it has, sprinkle on some garlic granules to give them flavour and flip over to cook on the other side. This shouldn't take too long. Cook until the chicken is cooked through, or above 63 degrees C. Once cooked, leave to sit on a plate and cool down if not using immediately and pop into the fridge. 

- Peel and chop the potatoes and plop them into some cold water with a little salt. This will clean them and get rid of any soil or stuff that grows around the potatoes in the ground. Then put them into boiling water and power boil until they are cooked through. Once they are cooked, drain and mash them. This is what I call pre-mash mashing. This is where I mash the most part out of them, and then finish them off with some salt, pepper and milk. Then whisk the potatoes; getting rid of all the lumps and making them smooth and silky.

- For the peas and cauliflower, there is no shame in using frozen. I use it. It is cheaper, faster and already prepared. What is best about it though, is that you can chuck it back in the freezer if you don't use all of it; making it more economical and handy.

- Chuck them into some boiling water. They'll only need around 10 minutes, I like them when they are cooked, but still have a bit to them and aren't just like mush.

- Salmon with couscous and soured cream and chive dip.

Cooling process

- For the salmon, you want to poach it. Put boiling water and a little white wine into a deep pot and heat. Put in the salmon fillets and cook until flaky and cooked through. This will take around 25 minutes or so. You'll know it is cooked when it goes from an orange/pink colour, is over 63 degrees C and is, well a salmon colour. Then take this out of the pot and set aside if not eating immediately and put into the fridge. You could garnish this with slices of lemon to compliment the couscous as well.

Okay, so this is a terrible photo, bit I uploaded it so you could see how I make the couscous. I let it sit and steam with a little clingfilm over it to trap in the heat.

- For the couscous, put the dried couscous granules into a bowl, pour over a little amount of boiling water and leave to sit. Mix with a fork and if it doesn't look fluffy, it needs more water. Keep adding little by little, you can always add more, but if you add too much, you're screwed. It'll be like eating something soggy and tacky if too much water is added.

- To serve, put the salmon on top of the couscous and top with the soured cream and chive dip. This is lovely. It is light, zingy from the lemon and meaty. Alternatively, you could shred the chicken into the couscous and mix in the dip, this also makes a really lovely, flavorful lunch. It is light on the pallet and isn't heavy, so ideal for a light lunch or nibble.

- To finish, Pavlova with whipped cream, strawberries, blueberries and blackberries.

Pavlova... you've gotta love it! I don't trust people who don't like pavlova, it seems suspicious to me. This is such a great wee dessert! All sweet, crunchy, chewy and fruity. Beautiful! The only thing tricky about making it is making sure to not over-whisk the eggs. If they are over whisked they aren't going to hold their height and that will take away from the appearance of the dessert.

- What you want to do, this is a Delia Smith recipe is put 3 egg whites into a clean bowl and whisk them until they are stiff peaks and only just stiff peaks. Slowly add 6 oz of caster sugar to the eggs when whisking on a low speed. This will gradually stiffen up the egg whites and turn them a very white colour and become opaque.

- Preheat the oven to 150 degrees C. Once the meringue is done, pour it onto a baking tray, lined with baking paper. Then pop into the oven and immediately turn the oven down to 140 C and bake for 1 hour. Once cooked, turn off the oven and leave the pavlova to sit in the residual heat for another hour. This will stabalise the pavlova and set it.

Hand whipped by yours truly. Not too shabby, eh? .... Again, it is the little things in life.

- Whip some cream and plop onto the pavlova. Top with some fruit and then it is done!

And that is all the food done and dusted. I loved these dishes as they were a pleasure to look at and hopefully eat. I didn't eat any though, as it wasn't for me.

Hope you enjoyed reading this and speak again soon hopefully!

Ciara