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Party
Posted By Kerri
You’d be forgiven for thinking that things have been a bit quiet around here lately. Both Stephen and I were out on Thursday and regrettably there was no food involved, only wine. And mojitos. For that reason, Friday saw us give in to the temptation of the supermarket pizza. As you might imagine, it wasn’t even nearly post-worthy.
The other thing that’s been keeping us busy was Stephen’s niece’s first birthday. We were tasked with preparing the food for 20 adults for a Sunday afternoon tea-party. We spent quite a while deciding on the menu which needed to be prepared in advance and easily-transportable. After much deliberating we settled on:
Caper and anchovy tart (this is actually based on a Jamie Oliver recipe for pizza topping, it worked brilliantly and would be great as a pizza topping)
Spinach, pine-nut and feta tart (from BBC Good Food )
Tomato and mozarella salad
Potato salad
Roast Beef (this was supposed to be decorated with watercress but it was in no fit state so we improvised with halved cherry tomatoes)
Poached salmon
Summer pudding
Chocolate brownies
After completing a mammoth shopping trip on Friday night, complete with matching hangovers (hence the reason for the supermarket pizza) we began work the next morning on turning the raw ingredients into interesting dishes.
We started off by making the summer pudding to Delia’s recipe and then the chocolate brownies, using our usual Jo Pratt recipe. Next up we roasted the beef with a flour and mustard powder coating and poached the salmon using this James Martin recipe. We boiled the potatoes, halved them and dressed them with oil, mustard and red onion (we added the parsely the next day). After all of that and the associated washing up we went out for dinner and a large glass of wine.
On Sunday morning we packed all of this up and made the journey to the party where, after a glass of Champagne, we set about completing the menu. We made up the tarts (after a quick dash to Tesco because we’d forgotten the pine nuts), assembled the tomato and mozarella salad, sliced the beef and the salmon and decorated it with cucumber and lemon slices (these were supposed to be those cute little lemon twists but they didn’t work out – an unfamiliar kitchen, someone else’s knives, two dogs and a one year old isn’t particularly conducive to frippary). The brownies were chopped and yet more chopping went on to complete a mixed salad.
Finally we sliced some bread, arranged some condiments and put the whole lot on the table. Half an hour later it was all gone. I’m hoping this is because it was enjoyed (we certainly had a lot of thanks) and not because there wasn’t enough. In the words of the great (or grating, depending on your point-of-view) Nigella, one should never knowingly be under-fed.
Aug 4th, 2008
What a fantastic spread of food you prepared! Wow. It gives me some ideas for a birthday buffet lunch that I’m hosting later in the month.
That looks like terrific party food! And I’m sure it all disappeared because it was *delicious*!
Great party! When will I get invited? 😉
It looks fantastic – I particularly like the anchovy and caper tart. Lovely presentation too.
Oooh it all looks amazing! It’s making me feel really hungry I really want a slice of the spinach, pine nut and feta tart, right now!
What time should I be there for the party – I will bring some killer wine to go with your kickass yummies. It all looks great but the tart is my favorite!!
Delicious! what a great party that must have been!
cheers,
Rosa
Thank you all for your lovely comments. The tarts seemed to be the biggest success of the day, I would definitely recommend them as they’re so easy to make and the variations are endless.
What a great party it must have been! I love that pine nut and feta tart! Great shot!
Wow, that is a great looking spread! Where to even begin? I think I’ll go with the tarts.
All of these dishes look delicious!
Would love the step-by-step for your caper and anchovy tart. It looks scrumptious! The mouse over of your picture reveals party_tart_anchovy_caper_chilli.jpg which means you spiced it up a bit too. Chillies and ‘chovies – 2 of my favorite ingredients! Sure wish you’d posted that recipe…
Hi CC,
We pretty much did just as the Jamie recipe said to I think, something like this (which I’ve copied and pasted from his site and amended just in case he tries to sue us 🙂 )
• 4 anchovy fillets (or as many as you like)
• 1 fresh red chilli, sliced
• 1 heaped teaspoon small capers, rinsed if salty
• extra virgin olive oil
• zest and juice of ½ a lemon
• 85g/3oz mozzarella (or, as much as you like)
• freshly ground black pepper
Cut the anchovy fillets in half lengthways and add to a bowl with the sliced chilli, the capers, a couple of tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and the lemon zest.
Squeeze over a little lemon juice as well and mix up. Let the anchovies sit in the marinade for 15 minutes.
Scatter torn-up pieces of mozzarella over the top of the pastry and then lay over the anchovy fillets, scatter over the capers and chilli and season.
Drizzle with a little of the leftover marinating oil and cook until crisp and golden – about 10 minutes.