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

Get stuck in Iced Biscuits

Good evening all

This is a great little recipe for the kids or anyone who enjoys a good muck around with food. This recipe involves mess, mischief and mucking about in the kitchen.

It is a hands-on, relaxed and fun recipe. The ingredients that you will be wanting to get into the house are;

This is a BBC Good Food Recipe and is plain, so you might want to add lemon or orange zest to it. This will give it more flavour. I liked it though, as I feel with desserts these days, there is so much flavour and various stuff going on in them, that sometimes it is just lovely to have something simple and delicious. The icing is perfect on these though, as it gives that little bit of sweetness that balances it.

Ingredients:

- 100g Butter, room temperature and soft enough to squish
- 100g Caster Sugar
- 1 Egg
- 275g Plain Flour
- 1 tsp Vanilla

Method:

- Chuck the butter and sugar into a bowl and mix until they are combined, light and fluffy.

- Crack the egg into a bowl (this works better in two ways. 1- you won't get any shell into the mix if you accidentally crack it weird. And 2- it helps if you whisk the egg a little before adding it to the sugar/butter mix.

- Add the vanilla and give this a little mix as well.

- Finally chuck in the flour and mix this until it forms a soft dough consistency. This is the stage where you can take the opportunity to get stuck in and squish and squelch the dough around. Have a good muck about with it!

- Wrap the dough in some cling of the film and chill in the fridge for around an hour to cool and firm up a bit.

- Once chilled, roll out the dough to the thickness of a £1 coin and cut out your desired shape.

- Bake these at 190 C in a fan assisted oven for 10 minutes, or until they are golden brown and look baked. If you aren't sure, check the bottom of them, and if they are browned, they are done!

- Take out of the oven and allow to cool and harden on a cooling rack until completely cooled.

Icing:

- Put around 250g of Icing Sugar into a two bowls. (250g in each bowl) and add enough water to make a thick paste, thick enough to hold its shape, but not so thick that it can't be manipulated.

- Add any colours that you want to make them unique to you and your likes.

- Using a piping bag, a chopstick and toothpick, decorate these little biscuits!

And that is it! They are done. Really simple and lovely little treat to have on a quiet and cold evening.

You can add lemon, lime or orange zest to these to make them more special and interesting in terms of flavour and textures. You could even sprinkle them with a little sugar before baking as that would make them a little sweeter. Whatever you want to do, these are diverse and versatile and that is the best thing. You can tailor them to you.

• 
  

Winter's Approaching Apple Crumble

BOO!! ME AGAIN- DID I SCARE YOU!? WELL IT IS HALLOWEEN!

So, the weather today! Weird or what!? I was under the influence that we were officially at the end of Autumn and next month would be Winter, as if there are 12 months in a year, four seasons, that would equate to 3 months in each season. I classify December, January and February as Winter... Non of this is relevant except from the fact that today it was 17C!

This is global warming I think. I remember when I was younger, the 1st November was cold and you could see your breath. Today, I saw people in t-shirts and shorts, topped off with glasses of the sun!

I relish the months that are so cold your teeth chatter, skin is freckled with goose pimples and it is so cold that you can see your breath and we all look like victims of cheek pinching, what with all the rosey cheeks. Where are those months, where have they gone?

Yesterday I had the yearn for something sweet, or what would be more accurate, I wanted to do what I always do, bake! And it isn't like I just want to do this when I am conscious, I want to bake in my dreams as well. Now this isn't a joke, I promise you that. I have had this dream a few times.

CAUTION: DEPTHS OF CIARA'S INNER, MOST STRANGE DREAMS BELOW:

Plot: Local girl is baking... but not in her own kitchen. In fact said girl, isn't actually herself. I mean she is, but she isn't, but she is.... but isn't.

She's (not she, but herself, just not in her own body) is baking, but not in her own kitchen. No, she is baking in the kitchen that belongs to the owner of the house in one of these box sets she has been binge watching.

Local girl is baking a cake, within a cake, within a cake. AND IT IS AMAZING!

All of a sudden, what was a harmless dream about baking, turns into this strange murder sequel, as the dream morphs into a reoccurring nightmare.

No longer does local girl find herself, but not herself, but herself in her kitchen, not her kitchen, but the kitchen that belongs to woman who owns the house in the box set which she is binge watching and apparently is now in and owns now. No, she now finds herself, but not herself in the set of a Robin Hood, meets A Series Of Unfortunate Events woodland area.

Taking place at night, more specifically twilight on a slanted hill, covered in leaves, surrounded by trees. There is an outhouse form Shrek (the one with the crescent moon), except it isn't an outhouse, but a little cupboard with around 10 steps upwards to the ceiling (no benefit in this design). Although these aren't any ordinary stairs, they have no back, it is simply planks of wood. So the horizontal parts are there, but the vertical parts that make the stairs complete aren't there.

The back wall of the outhouse, but not an outhouse, actually a cupboard, suddenly vanishes.

All if a sudden, local girl finds herself at the top of the hill with some sinister music playing in the background. Then a wolf, like the one out of Harry Potter, so Lupin. This comes hurdling towards her, teeth as large as you like and local girl is its target.

Local girl runs into the outhouse, come cupboard and locks the door, by standing on the third step up, hunched over and putting all her weight behind the door. Wolfy keeps trying to break its way in.

Then it all goes quiet.

Local girl finds herself surrounded by silence. Boom!!!

Wolf starts gnawing on her ankles. Suddenly my ankles are no more. All that is left are my bones, except they're not bones, but wooden spoons. Wolfy and local girl stare at each other in anticipation of what will happen next.

Then I wake up.

This is me always thinking about food.

Any way, I made crumble. It was your classic, wholesome, traditional crumble. All buttery and delicious.

This is my own recipe and it will vary depending on the size of your hands.

The ingredients you'll need:

- 8 Apples, any kind, I use eating apples, Pink Ladies to be more specific. The difference between using cooking apples and eating apples, in my humble opinion is nothing, bar the flavour and texture. Eating apples are sweeter and softer in texture. Cooking apples are more bitter and need more cooking as they are firmer. So the flavour and texture will be the biggest difference.

- 3 tbsp cinnamon, ground

- 50-75g Caster Sugar

- Good knob of butter and a glug of oil


- 10 handfuls of plain flour
- 4 handfuls of soft brown muscavado sugar
- 2- 3 handfuls of butter


Method:

What you want to do is pretty simple; which is perfect for the weekend and if you want something full of flavour, but isn't going to take too long to assemble and bake.

- Peel and chop the apples into fairy beefy chunks and chuck into a deep- deep-ish pot, that is non stick

- Once all the apples are peeled and chopped and in the pot, chuck in some butter, oil and wack on the heat to high. Let these apples sizzle and simmer until they are slightly softened. Add in the sugar and cinnamon and allow these to mingle and bubble away with a little water . You want these apples to boil and become tender, rather than fry and crispy.

- Cover with a lid and allow to bubble away for 20 minutes.

- In the meantime (I've never understood that saying, meantime, suggesting that the time is mean perhaps???) All Google can give me is the definition in which there is a space of time between one activity and the other... I already knew that.

Make the crumble topping. To do this, take the flour and sugar, plop them into a bowl together and mix with your hands until they are combined. Chuck in the butter and using a rubbing motion between your thumbs and fingers, rub the flour/ sugar and butter together to form the iconic breadcrumb texture consistency.

- Butter a deep dish, I used a casserole dish, and chuck in the cooked apples. Top with the cinnamon, breadcrumb like topping and pop into the oven, which will have been preheating at 170C and bake for 35 minutes or until set, golden and cracking slightly on the surface.

- Take out of the oven and eat! Yay! It is done!!!

Homemade Iced Buns

All fluffy and Sweet

Good afternoon all!

As promised, I made Iced buns today! What great fun! They are especially fun, as they are made with ingredients that are basic staples in the home! You are bound to have most if not all of these ingredients to hand!

I am really excited about these! I mean really excited, like do you ever know when you always aspire to make something or do something and when you do and not only is it an achievement in itself that you are making or doing it, but when they are done, they are actually successful!?

Really happy! I don't know if you can tell?...

These are easy enough to make, I'd probably rate them as moderate to difficult, as yeast can always be a bit of a hit and miss sometimes. It all depends on the weather, temperature, level of humidity and all that, so even before you are baking it is already harden than you'd think!needed!

I loved making these. With the heating on and the oven pre heating it helps a lot with the humidity and temperature.

This is a Paul Hollywood recipe.

He says to add a filling, I didn't. Making these more my own and putting my own twists on them. I didn't add a filling as I feel, if not eaten right away, then they are going to have a greater chance of going soggy and stale...

The ingredients that you'll need for these;

DOUGH:

- 500g Strong White Flour
- 50g Caster Sugar
- 2 x 7g packets of instant yeast
- 2 tsp Salt

- 150ml Milk, warmed with the butter
- 40g Unsalted Butter

- 2 Eggs, whole and whisked

- 140ml Water

ICING:

- Icing Sugar
- Water


METHOD:

- Pre heat the oven to 200C in a fan assisted oven and grease two baking sheets with a thin layer of butter. Set aside until they are needed. Pre heating the oven now, even though you aren't using it for like 2 hours, will help to make the kitchen warm and humid; perfect for the proving of the dough.

- Put the flour, sugar, yeast and salt into a bowl and attach to a mixer.Mix this with the bread hook for 1 minute. This will ensure it is all fully combined.

- Gently and slowly melt the butter in the heating up milk in a pot.

- This will go from being some butter soaking in milk, to a pale yellow mixture.

- Once this is combined, whilst stirring the butter/ milk mix, stir in the whisked eggs. This will ensure they don't scramble.

- Now, with the mixer on a low beat speed, gradually pour the buttery milk into the flour mixture.

I poured the mixture liquid in along the edge of the flour mix. This ensured it gradually incorporated itself into the mix.

- Now add the water in. VERY slowly. If you add the water in all at once, it'll turn from being a lovely dough, to a raw piece of batter soaking in some floury water.

- Once all the water is in, give the dough a good mix for 10 minutes. If it is way too sticky and wet, just keep adding flour until it doesn't stick to the sides in one wet mess and starts to look and has the form of a dough.

- Pinch the dough and stretch into a smooth ball. Drop this into an oiled container that is airtight and allow this to rise in a warm place (mine is on the radiator near a pre heating oven) for an hour or so until it has risen to double the size and is peppered with air pockets.

- Do the dishes, you'll thank yourself later. Raw dough is a .... to get off a bowl. It hardens and acts like cement in a way.

- After the dough has risen to the desired height and amount, take it out of its container. Using your scale, weigh out 70g pieces of the dough.

I know this says 71g, but hey...

Paul said this would make 12 pieces, I got 16...

- Using the middle of your palm, between your index finger and thumb, make a backwards C shape, like a claw. Haha- C, Claw, I never realised that. I'm not as thick as I sometimes come off, really. All in good spirits.

Even when I baking, just for me, I still wear a hairnet 

- Using this shape, get a 70g ball of dough and roll it anti-clockwise until it is smooth and a ball shape.

- Then flatten out your hand and roll the dough ball up and down, this will form a finger shape, like a sausage.

- Once you have the finger shape achieved, put this onto the greased baking sheet. Space the about a finger apart, as you want them to touch and connect during their second prove.

- Once all the buns are shaped and on the baking sheet, cover loosely with a piece of cling film to prevent them from developing a skin.

- Once they have proved again and are all connected, if not, give them a wee nudge and they will be grand.

- Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, mine were in about 8 minutes, so it depends on your oven and the day and all that. So keep an eye on them and once they are golden brown and risen more, they are done.

- Take them out of the oven and let them cool on the sheet for 5 minutes, you can make the icing whilst they are cooling. After five minutes, pull them apart and put them onto a cooling rack to cool completely. If you tried to pull them apart when they were too hot, they would rip and pull apart, but not in the intended way.

- To make the icing, put the icing sugar into a wide bowl or pie dish and using your hand, mix in a little bit of cold water at a time. You want the icing to be thick and hold its shape, but not so thick, causing it to harden and not be able to spread or coat anything at all. It should be able to coat your fingers, but dribble off at the same time.

My hands were cleaned, I washed them beforehand. Although, I used a spoon later as I'm not a big fan of getting my fingers coated in icing, it makes for not being able to touch anything as I'd make everything sticky.

- Whilst holding the edges of the bottom of the bun, dip the top of them in the icing and is needed, use the back of a spoon to spread the icing over the top and even it out. Then sit on a cooling rack or whatever you are planning on serving them on to set.

- Ready to eat! Yum! They are so good, I have no shame in saying it. I'm normally quite modest, but when something is really good, I'll say it with happiness!

That is it, I hope you enjoyed this!

Thanks and speak again soon!